Protect the Children at all Costs
by saiyalove
Summary: An old friend of Jamies comes back years after Pitch Black is defeated. Problem is, with her comes some new Guardians that Jack has to deal with along with making amends to the teen for forgetting her and there is anything but normal about this girl. Spirits are drawn to her and she believes in all of them making her a target for abuse. What can Jack and the Guardians do?
1. Making Amends

Eden: Just so you all know there will be broken bits of French in this story. I do not speak French so I had to use translators and such to do so. If I offend you then I am sorry but you were warned! Also this will be a slow moving Frost/Bunny fic~

...

Jacks eye was twitching. He knew it was. He couldn't help it as that too smug of a grin on the other spirit's face was too much even for the mischief making winter spirit. He was talking again in that smug ass tone but Jack couldn't find the will to say anything back, he'd rather just ignore him but the spirit of Halloween wouldn't leave him be. "I know she's here." He said still grinning. "Ugh! Who? Who in hell are you even talking about?!" Jack had just about enough of the annoying boy. He had been talking about some kid, a girl, about Jamies age that he had never heard of before. "Right, you dun know her!" He stated as if just realizing this little tidbit. Jack groaned loudly and floated down from the tree branch he had been trying, TRYING, to rest on and faced the Halloween spirit whom sat at its base with his hands behind his head and his legs crossed. He wasn't a bad looking guy, in need of some serious sun and sleep from the look of his skin and bags under his eyes making them look sunken in and almost hallow. What was supposed to be the whites of his eyes were bright yellow and the iris was blood red and the pupils were slitted to boot. His short choppy hair was parted at the side making his short bangs slightly cover his right eye, barely covering his pointed ears, his hair was also tipped with orange.

Dawned in his dark black and purple hoodie, black and brown camo pants that tucked into his dark combat boots made him look like some kind of punk. He grinned again. Jack hated this spirit. "Well, she's not here yet, she's on her way. She believes in all the spirits, well, maybe... We'll see if she believes in you." Jack REALLY hated this spirit. "Why should I care?" He growled at the boy, wanting nothing more then for the boy to leave him be. Even if Jack flew away he just knew the other spirit would follow. "Because she's adorable." The boy grinned showing off his sharp fangs. Jack sighed. "Even IF that's true what does that have to do with me?" The Halloween spirits grin widened, if possible, and he stood up from his spot at the base of the tree. "She's movin' here! To the house next to your little Jamie!" Jack twitched visibly. Great, just great, the very girl that this annoying spirit had a thing for was going to be living right next to Jamie. Great... The boy laughed loudly and bowed towards him mockingly. "I think I've done enough for one day." And with that he vanished in a tornado of purple and black colors.

It wasn't until well after five 'o clock that Jamie found a fairly annoyed Jack Frost sitting next to his lake. "Jack!" Said spirit jumped and turned to look over at the now teen boy slowing down his run to stand by Jack, grinning from ear to ear. "Jack guess what!" The boy said as he panted slightly as Jack, knowing what it might be, forced his signature smirk and stood to fully face the boy. "What is it Jamie-boy?" The teen was almost bouncing on his feet by now. "There's a new family moving in next door to us!" Jack held in the groan that so wanted to force it's way through his throat. Why? The Man in the Moon must really hate him. "And I know who it is!" He was so excited right now and the statement made him curious. "Oh? Then who is it?" The boys smile grew. "It's Joyice! She E-mailed me yesterday!" Jack was struck speechless. Joyice? One of his believers? "That's great!" The boys laughed together and high five. Jack was excited, he wondered if she would remember him. Even if she didn't Jamie was surely going to make her believe again, Jamie was the main reason half the world now knew of him. Then dread set in deep within his chest. Jack forgot about her for years, mostly spending his time with Jamie and bringing snow days to the world and spreading mischief where ever he went. But he hadn't visited her in a long time and then there was the Halloween spirit on her tail too. "Jack?" Apparently he let the worry and irritation show on his face since Jamie seemed worried. "Uh, oh nothing. So, when is she supposed to move in?" Jack said to distract the teen. "Today! I've been looking all over for you so we can see her!" Jamie grabbed Jack by the collar of his hoodie and started dragging him away from the lake and to his home. When they got there they were greeted with a moving van and men going to and from the house to the truck all carrying boxes. Then they spotted who they were looking for or, so Jack thought.

She was a teen around Jamies age but was a bit shorter. With it being late January she was dressed in a heavy dark winter coat with black wool gloves and earmuffs on her upper body and black leather looking pants and thick heeled boots on her lower half. Her hair was straight and reached her lower back, dyed white at the tips and when she faced their direction Jack noticed her long bangs mostly hung in her face and her eyes were heavily lined with eyeliner. A large thumb drew Jack and Jamies attention to one of the movers that had dropped a box marked 'Joyice' and said girl put the box she had down to run up to the mover. "Watch what you're doing!" She quickly picked up the boxed, groaning under the weight as she glared at the oversized movers. "If anything is broken I'll make sure you never get paid!" She hissed at the men and went to the box she felt and placed the box she was holding onto it. "I mean it. If one thing in this box is broken, kiss your payment goodbye." She growled and bent to lift both boxes, stumbling only slightly she went into the house, most likely to her room to set the boxes. The men grumbled something under their breath and went back to their jobs.

When she came back out Jamie made his way up to her. "Joyice!" The girl looked and smiled slightly. "Jamie. You actually came to see me?" She said obviously surprised. Jack stayed back for their little meeting the teens were chatting away with each other until she turned to look back in Jack's direction. "Jack!" He jumped slightly startled by her calling out his name. She waved at him gently a very small smile on her face but it faded completely when a small child came running out of the house and colliding into her leg and nearly toppling her over. "Sarah! I told you not to run into me like that! And don't run so fast when there's ice on the sidewalks!" The small child pouted and looked over at Jack, she giggled and ran up to him, nearly knocking them both over. "Woah!" She was jumping up and down chattering about winter and Christmas. "Sarah!" Came a very stren sisterly voice making the child and spirit look over at Joyice who was making her way over to them. Standing in front of them Joyice crossed her arms and tapped her heavy boots into the iced over sidewalk. She looked very much like a scolding mother or an angry lover. "What did I just say?" The child lowered her head and placed her gloved hands behind her back. "S-sorry... I just wanted to meet Jack Frost.." Came her tiny reply making Joyice sigh. "You have to be careful. Mom would be totally cracked if you got hurt under my watch." She said and Jack noticed the little girls shoulders slumped slightly, he couldn't call Joyice out on it since she spoke again. "And I don't want you to get hurt, you are my sister after all." The girl smiled softly. Joyice looked down and gasped. "Sarah! Where are your shoes?!" The little girl looked down, back at her sister then to Jack who rose his hands up in defence like the argument that was to come was going to be aimed at him. "I forgot..." Joyice's brows knotted together and pointed at the house behind her. "Go get your shoes on or don't come back outside! I mean it!" The girl huffed and went back into the house. "Sooo..." Jack started awkwardly trying to lighten the tensed mood. "She believes in me?" Joyice looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Of course she does. If I believe in something then she does too." Joyice flipped her bangs out of her face and turned to Jamie once more. "So look, I'm glad you guys came to see me but it's..." She paused and looked off to the side with an emotion Jack couldn't quite place. "It's just a little busy right now. Um, we'll meet tomorrow when the movers are gone and... Stuff." She didn't let Jamie reply, instead she walked by him and went to the truck to pull out more boxes and moved to the house. "That was... Odd..." Said Jamie as he looked over at Jack whom nodded his agreement. "Yeah.. Looks like she changed a bit." The boys nodded and went to Jamies house. "I think I'll go see her tomorrow like she said. After all, she was a good friend." The teen smiled and Jack nodded. "Yeah.." But he wasn't. Jack forgot about her all these years and the guilt was like a large rock in his gut. He was going to make that right, one way or another.

...

It was late at night when he saw her again. Jack had perched himself on the branch of a tree outside Jamies house for the night when Joyice snuck out of her second story window by the bare rose ladder and hopped her back fence to head into the woods. She looked back only once before heading deeper into the wooded area, "What is she doing?" Jack followed her as she made her way into the dark woods and he noticed something, no matter what noise was made she never, NEVER looked in it's direction. Jack took a stick from the ground and broke it loudly to see if she would look. She didn't. Jack huffed but still followed until she stopped at his lake. 'Seems like everything happens here.' Jack thought to himself as he watched Joyice look over the frozen lake, slowly she tapped her heavy boot on the ice hard then slowly pressed her weight onto it. Slowly she made her way over the iced lake surprised at the thickness of it for a moment. Ever since Jack remembered how he died he made sure to freeze the ponds and lakes almost completely solid so no one would have to go through that again, so Jack wasn't worried about Joyice being on the ice. What he WAS worried about was that she was outside in late January, at night, ALONE and no one knew where she was. Except for him. When she reached the end of the lake she turned at raised her hands to the sides of her head and pulled out earbuds from her ears. 'So that's why she didn't react to any sounds.' Jack thought to himself again ducking his head back behind the tree he was using to hide himself. "Jack, I know you're there.

Floating out from behind the tree and over his lake, Jack landed in front of Joyice who hand her arms crossed and was tapping her foot at him, much like she did to her sister earlier that day. "Hey now, I'm not the one sneaking out to who-knows-where in the middle of the night." He smirked as her dark lined eyes narrowed. "It's none of YOUR business, Jack." She spat his name like venom making the frost spirit flinch. "Hey now." He started but was cut off as Joyice spoke again. "Don't." She said with her hand up to him signaling for him to be quiet. "I don't need you to look out for me. I learned that a long time ago, you or the others." Her tone was bitter and she turned to continue to head into the woods without another word leaving Jack to soak in what she said. "Hey, hey wait!" He shouted flying off after the teen girl. "Look, I know I messed up but you really shouldn't be out here late at night." She stopped for only a moment before walking once again. They walked for a while more with Jack telling the girl to go home but she kept her mouth quite tight. It wasn't until they reaches a clearing of some kind that she turned to him again. "Look Jack, I don't need you here." Her words stung his chest but they kept coming. "I haven't needed you in years. I have new spirits looking after me when you and your friends up and forgot about me." Jack looked at her for a moment. New spirits? Was the Halloween jerk off one of them? "Who?" The word left his mouth before he could catch it. "What's it to ya?" She sneered before turning around and rising her hands to her mouth and called out, "Edgar! I'm here! Where are you, Edgar!" Jack stumbled back from the loudness of her yell and looked around, it WAS the Halloween spirit. On cue from her yell said spirit appeared in that same tornado of purple and black and grinned at Jack. "So, she still see's ya, eh Jackie?" Jack growled at the nickname, no one called him that but Bunny and the only reason he got away with it was because... Jack shook his head and glared at the Spirit. "HIM? Him of ALL spirits?" Joyice narrowed her eyes at him before making her way to the Halloween spirit and giving him a brief hug and turning back to Jack with Edgar's right arm around her shoulders. "Watch it. He's my friend." Jack couldn't stop the mock laugh that left his throat. "Friend?" Jack shook his head. "Does a friend make you come all the way out into the woods just to see them?" Joyice left Edgar's side to walk up to Jack and started poking his chest roughly with her finger. "Listen here you over stuffed snowman." She growled making him take a step or two back as she poked at his chest. "I came out here because I WANTED to come out here. When I was kid he always, ALWAYS came to see me at home so now I come outside to see him." With that said she flipped her dark white tipped hair out of her face and turned her back on him to stand by Edgar's side again. Jack rubbed his chest where she had been poking him and pointed his staff at the spirit, determined to make her see what he saw in the other. "He's not your friend! He's nothing but a trouble maker! He's using you for something, a prank most likely." The girls face scrunched up in anger, "You look here-" Jack cut her off before she could continue. "All he does is spread fear and pull bad pranks on human and spirit a-like!" Jack took a step forward and jabbed his staff in Edgar's direction. "I don't-" She was cut off again. "People get hurt in his pranks! Sure I pull pranks but no one ever got hurt." Except for when he knocked out Jamies tooth that one time, but that was an accident! How was he supposed to know that couch would follow their little sledding show. Joyice was going to speak again but Jack stopped her yet again. "And besides he's a creep! And is probably-" The teen girl stomped her foot and shouted at Jack, "ferme ta gueule!" Jack paused. Was... Was that French? Joyice wasn't French. Sadly, Jack didn't know French and she was screaming at him in the foreign language. "VVous ne savez pas quoi que ce soit! Vous n'avez jamais venu me voir ainsi comment vous savez quelque chose?!" She was gesturing with her hands wildly and pointing at him, her tone was angry with just a hint of deep bitterness and her eyes teared up slightly but they were glaring at Jack as if he would burst into flames at any moment. "Vous n'avez pas!" She snapped at him and huffed loudly from her rant in French. "Vous n'avez pas un mot dire dans tout ce que je fais! Plus maintenant." She ended her rant and turned her back on him crossing her arms and shaking her head. Jack reached out for her but Edgar placed his arm in front of her to stop Jack from getting too close. "I think you've done enough damage for the night Frost." The spirit of Halloween was suddenly very serious now and his snake like eyes glared at Jacks for a moment before he pulled away and went to Joyices side. Jack stayed for a few moments longer before floating into the sky and leaving the girl and spirit alone. Jack had to figure this out, he had to find someone to help him do that. Who? Who could ask for help? Then it hit him, North. North could help him figure this out, so with that in mind he made his way to the pole.

...

"She was yelling at me in French, North! Freakin' FRENCH!" Jack groaned flopping back onto the window sill he sat on in Norths office as the large Russian man worked on a new train of some sort. "She was angry, da?" Jack sighed heavily. "Yeah... Livid really." North hummed thoughtfully as he worked and taking in all of what the teen spirit had told him. "She is upset." He said simply making Jack groan again. "I KNOW that!" He sat up and turned to the Christmas spirit. "I want to know how to fix it so I can get her away from Edgar!" He all but spit out the Halloween spirits name like a bad after taste making the large man hum again. "Come on North, I need your help. I don't want that guy to hurt her." North finally looked up at the teen and sighed at seeing the desperation in his eyes. "She is mad. Hurt. That you left her alone and forgotten." Jack deflated at Norths words. He was right and Jack knew it, still though... There had to be a way of fixing all of this. "North... Please.." Jack pleaded making North sigh once more. "Try." Was all the old Russian said making Jack tilt his head. "Try? Try what?" North rose from his desk and walked over to the window Jack sat on. "Try make it better. Make up for lost time Jack." The frost spirit thought for awhile and North watched the boys face as he did. "Okay. I think I know how to start." The boy jumped up and faced North. "Can I barrow a snow globe?" North made a show of thinking really hard until Jack was bouncing on his feet and calling out to him. "Haha, of course you can!" The large man made for the trunk at the side of his desk and took a globe from it to hand to Jack. "Thanks North." The Russian nodded and stepped back for Jack to use the globe. "Okay take me to the Warren globe." Jack waited to see the Easter eggs before tossing it and then floating through it with a wave to the spirit of wonder making him laugh.

Jack stumbled out of the portal clumsily brushing off invisible dust and looked over the Warren. He was glad to see the Warren as lush and green as it ever was, he always feared that he would walk into the Warren on day and see it trampled and black like he did after Pitch was defeated. "Bunny!" Jack called as he rode the wind in search of the large Pooka. In the few years of Jack being a Guardian he and Bunny had gotten to be better friends. Not to say that they didn't fight, in fact, they fought more often the not but it wasn't as harsh or mean. Their fights were more on the smart-assed side of things to see who had the sharper tongue or best come-backs. It was a tie at the moment but Jack knew he could beat that old grumpy bunny any day! "Buuuuuuuunnn~ eeeeeeey!" Jack sang as he rounded an egg golem and towards the dye river on the other side of the Warren where he knew Bunny would be working or taking his naps. Luckily, Bunny was awake working on a few of his 'googies' as they pitter-patted around him waiting to be painted. "What cha want Frost?" The slightly grumpy sounding Australian voice huffed as his ear turned towards Jack but otherwise the rabbit never moved from his spot. "I need some help Bunny." Jack said as he perched on his staff and waited for the Spirit of Hope to turn to him. When he didn't Jack started to whine slightly. "C'mon Bunny! I'm for real this time!" The rabbits ears fell flat to his head but he still didn't turn around or give any sign that he was going to help. "Ya do know Easter 's in a few months right?" He said making Jack groan. "Uuuugh! I know Cottontail but this is serious, I swear!" Jack said and hopped off his staff to walk over to flop next to the Pooka warrior. "I promise I'll help make up for the time you give me, I swear, but I really need your help." Jack reached out and grabbed a fistful of the fur on Bunny's arm and tugged slightly trying to emphasize how important this was to him. Bunny sighed and placed the egg he was painting down and let pitter-pat away before turning to the younger Guardian. "If this 's some kind of prank Jack Frost, ah'll skin ya good." Jack grinned and nodded quickly letting go of Bunny's fur. "Now, tell me what got ya panties in a twist." Jack's face flushed slightly blue as frost covered his cheeks at the comment but told him what was wrong anyway. "You remember who Pumpkin Jack is right?" The rabbits eyes narrowed at the name, he hadn't had the pleasure of meeting this spirit as much as Jack has and the winter spirit was glad for that. "Ah think so, he's tha Halloween spirit, right?" Jack nodded and was glad he wouldn't have to explain that part to the Pooka. "Yeah well, you remember Joyice?" Jack watched Bunny's dark eyebrows knot together as he searched for the girl in his memory. At least a minute passed before Bunny's eyes widened in remembrance and nodded quickly. "Ay! Little ankle-bitta that liked to climb trees and play in tha snow." Jack nodded again and sighed softly, so far so good on telling Bunny what happened. "Well, you see, she just moved back in next to Jamies house and well..." Jack trailed off rubbing the back of his neck and looking way at the dye river. "Jack, what is it?" Jack looked back at Bunny from the corner of his eye and rubbed his face roughly as the fight they had went through his mind again. "Well, uh... F-for lack of a better way at putting this, she hates my guts.. And is mad at all of the Guardians." The last bit of what he said came out rushed as if he wouldn't have gotten it out if he didn't say it quickly. Bunny blinked. Blinked again. Then he shook his head and stared at Jack. "Why?" Jack scoffed at the rabbit. "When was the last time you saw her?" Bunny flinched and turned away from Jack and picked up the egg he was painting before. "Jack," He started and then sighed heavily. "My work, like Sandy and Tooth's, doesn't end. In the months after Easter ah have ta get the flowers ready for the next year, replantin' alone takes three or so months. ah also have to feed the soil with my own magic, how do think t's always spring here?" Jack tilted his head to one side, he had never know taking care of the Warren was so trying. Now he felt kinda bad for freezing parts of the Warren when he would drop by now. "Sorry.." Jack huffed and stood back up, if Bunny had to do that much work before and after Easter then Jack should look else where for help. "Never mind Cottontail, I got this." Jack twirled his staff for a moment then let the wind lift him into the air and floated above Bunnys head. "I'll help ya out later today, promise!" Bunny stood up and grabbed Jacks ankle before he can get too high up. "Hold it there, Frostbite. Ya never ask fer help so ah'm gonna help, besides I could use the help when it's over." Jack floated back down to stand and stare at the Pooka for a long moment, he never thought Bunny would actually help him or even want his help in return! Bunny's ears twitched at Jacks look of awe. Had what he just said really been that surprising? Bunny had to admit that it would even throw North off at accepting the winter spirits help with his Warren and Easter preparations. Then his ears flop slightly in surprise at Jacks blinding smile as he nods quickly. "Deal!"

...

Jack floated out of a hole Bunny made outside of Jamies house and waited for the large rabbit to follow. When he did Jack grin and shouted, "Follow me!" And took off to the next door house with Bunny yelling at him to slow down. Jack looked around the house and into the windows looking for Joyice and when he didn't find her he huffed. "Where is she?" Bunny hummed and tapped his foot on the ground as he thought for a moment. "Where did ya see her last?" Jacks eyebrows knotted together in thought. "Oh! I remember! C'mon, c'mon!" He shouted and took off again, "Damnit Frost!" Bunny yelled and quickly hopped off to catch up with the flying mischief maker. He almost bumped into Jack went he stopped suddenly making Bunny growl but the sound of yelling made him look at where they were. Jacks lake. Where they finally sent Pitch Black into his hole and admitted Jack to be a member of the Guardians. His eyes trained in on the two teens yelling at each other, one by the lake shore and the other standing in the middle of the frozen lake. "Why are you so mad?! All I said is I was going to get Jack!" Jamie yelled at the girl on the ice and dodged a hard snowball flying toward his face. "I said I don't want to see him! Keep him way from me!" She screamed back holding another snowball above her head, ready to throw a hard blow to Jamies head. When she threw it Jack was ready and knocked the hard snowball away with his staff, it was as hard as ice and made a loud chunk sound when he hit it. "Hey! Knock it off you could hurt someone!" Jack shouted and stood in front of Jamie just in case she wanted to throw another iceball at them. "I told you last night to leave me alone Jack Frost!" She stomped her foot on the hard ice making Jamie and Bunny flinch at the sound. "Oh is that what you were saying to me? I couldn't understand what you were saying since you were, ya know, screaming at me in French!" Bunny and Jamies heads turned to Jack then to the girl on the ice. "Only because you pissed me off! Don't talk shit about my friend!" With that she threw another iceball but this time she hit Jack square in the chest making him double over with a soft humph and stomped again in her rage. "You insulted him! He's been my only friend, my only friend since I moved!" The teen girl started waving her hands and turned her back to them. "VVous les gars oublié à propos de moi! Puis je reviens et vous insulter mon seul ami!" She turn back and pointed at the group as she went. When she was done she was huffing from anger and swept her arm out in front of herself. "I'm pissed off, Jack Frost!" She spat and turned away and started heading to the other side of the frozen lake without another word.

Bunny turned to Jack when she disappeared into woods to see him rubbing his chest, she brows knotted together and a deep frown that looked very out of place on his face. And from the look on Jamies face he thought so too. "What happened Jack?" Jamie asked quietly waiting for Jack to say something. Jack sighed and ran a hand through his hair and looked to where Joyice had gone just moments before. He told them about what happened up until he left for the north pole. "I see. Well, you really pissed her off mate." Bunny stated making Jack groan and flop down on his back into the snow, his arms out at his sides and staff falling out of his grip slightly. Bunny chuckled quietly to himself at Jacks over reaction to his statement, something that would have annoyed him greatly early on but now that he's had some time to adjust to how Jack worked he found him rather funny and, if her were honest with himself, kind of cute. "C'mon Jack, ya betta tell her yer sorry about bad mouthing her friend." Jack glared at the Pooka whom just smirked back making him sigh and sit up. "But it's Edgar! That good for nothing Halloween spirit! Bunny he's worse then I am!" Bunny blinked. "You know him by name?" Jack stared at Bunny for a moment in something in between disbelief and annoyance that Bunny seemed to not get what he said. "So? That's not the point! He's bad news Bun!" Jamie, who had been quiet and thinking this whole time, finally spoke up. "How do you know that Jack? Do you know him that well?" Jack snapped his head to Jamie whose eyes where searching his face for clues to this whole bizarre situation. "I.. We... Uhh, W-we used to hang out." Jack said quickly and looked away from Jamie to see Bunny eyeing him with the same look only his was way more intense. "A-A long time ago... I didn't like his pranks and haven't talked to him since." Jack stated quickly and got up from the ground and floated over the lack. "I'm going to go find her!" With that he took off into the woods. "Jack! Grr, bloody bub runnin' off like tha'! C'mon mate." He huffed and snatched up Jamie and slung him onto his back and took off to catch up to Jack and Joyice. "Whoa Bunny slow down!" Jamie shouted as he clutched onto the fur of Bunny's back as he made his way quickly through the woods. Bunny couldn't shake what Jack had said, 'We used to hang out', for some reason that sat in the Pookas gut like a bad egg especially when he told them he was bad news.

"What? Didn't do enough damage last night so you gotta do some more Frost?" Bunny heard a rough and slightly hissing voice say as he stopped at a small clearing to see Jack and another spirit having what could only be described as, a stand off. Jack had his staff clutched tightly in front of his chest as his stance was spread wide in an obvious defensive posture as the other had his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl set on his gray face. Then Bunny spotted Joyice who looked like she was torn about something. "Edgar, stop it! I told you he was leaving!" Her pleading voice was waved off by the spirit that kept his glare on Jack and growled. "Shush! I told you I'd take care of this." Bunny's head tilted to the side at the scene, it sounded like a domestic dispute or a kid trying to empress a girl on the play ground by saving her from a bully. But Jack was no bully, he could hardly rise his voice without feeling guilty for it and apologizing for hours. "Look, I just came here to make peace okay? I wanted to-" The Halloween spirit growled as he cut him off. "I don't care what you want! Joyice said to leave her alone!" With that Edgar swiped his arm out towards Jack a rush of black and purple followed and lashed out at him. Jack had just enough time for the wind to pick him up and out of the way of the strike and to see the damage done to the tree that way behind him. "Edgar stop!" Joyice threw herself infront of the spirit and grabbed his arm to keep him from using it again. "I don't want him hurt! I don't want anyone hurt! Leave him alone!" She cried at him making his glare turn from Jack to her. "You said you wanted him to leave so I'm making him leave!" The girl shook her head. "Not like this! I'm mad, yes, but I don't want him to be hurt!" She shook her Halloween spirit slightly as she pleaded with him. "I hate fighting! Please!" Edgar's body went rigid as she pleaded with him to not attack Jack, whom was still floating in the air and ready to retreat just in case Edgar didn't listen to Joyice and attacked him again. With one last glare set at Jack the spirit huffed and removed himself from the girls grasp, rather roughly they might add, and stepped back. "Fine. You wanna listen to him yammer on? Be my guest!" And in a swirl of dark colors the Halloween spirit was gone. "Edgar!" The girl placed a hands on her head pushing up her bangs as she leaned her head back briefly before snapping it forward with a frustrated yell, turning and pacing with her hands on hips. Another angered shout as she reached a stump sticking up from the ground and gave it a hard kick with her heavy boot effectively knocking off the dead bark and bits of wood before pacing again. Jack floated to stand behind Bunny silently seeking his comfort, something Bunny noticed he did only with him and the Pooka took great pride in this little fact, that's right he knew this as a fact. "Jack Frost!" All three males jumped at the sound of a very distraught and angry female teenager. "Why couldn't you leave me alone today huh?! Why can't you ever do what your told?!" The teen pointed her gloved finger at the spirit and then pointed to Jamie hotly. "I told you we had a fight! I wanted to be left alone today but you wouldn't! And neither would Edgar!" She snapped and ran her hand through her white tipped hair roughly. "Aye calm down sheila." Joyice snapped her head to the Pooka and shouted. "DON'T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN! I DON'T NEED TO CALM DOWN I NEED TO BE ALONE!" The guys all flinched back and Jamie and Jack hide behind Bunny at her loud voice. "I told everyone to leave me alone today! I just need time to adjust to this shit but nooooo, you fuckers know what I need better then me, so why listen?!" The girl was heaving heavily and glaring at the three like she had the power to burn them on the spot. Silence ran over them in a thick and heavy sheet that seemed to smother the guys in its shadow of awkwardness. "I'm sorry."

They all turned their head to Jack to see him with his head down and turned slightly so they couldn't see his face. "I was just worried about you.." This made the girl laugh loudly covering her darkly line eyes with her hand as her head tilted back from that action. She all but laughed manically as it turned from a mock laughter to a high pitched cackle that shook them all to their very bones. "Hahaha! You've GOT to be kidding me! Worried? You?" She drew her hands out to gesture at the spirit before fanning her hands out beside her. "I haven't even seen you in years! Why, all of a sudden, do you give a big rats ass about one kid? About me?" The statement made Bunny's ears drop and his fingers twitch as they tapped at his hip, a habit Jack caught when the Pooka was thinking or worried. "Jack has responsibilities as a Guardian. He couldn't just drop by and spend time with anyone let alone the children." Jamie stated peeking his head out from behind Bunnymund, still in fear of the teenage girls rage at the moment but continued on his little defending Jack Frost tick. "I haven't even seen him in a good few years! Jack has to bring winter and fun to all the kids, not just us!" At this the boy found some courage and took a step out from behind the rabbit. "But he has visited you, right?" The girl asked in an icy calm voice that sent a chill down Jamies spine. Not good. The girl was bitter and hurt and Jamie telling her that Jack had indeed visited him in the past years was not helping. The girl shook her head and walked away from the group and flopped down onto her back in the snow sighing heavily. "Sorry.." The girl said faintly from the ground and Jack saw Bunny's ears perked up at the sound of it. "In all honesty, I would have stopped believing in all spirits if it weren't for Sandman bringing me good dreams." She said making Bunny and Jack look at each other, Jack floated over to the girl on the ground and flopped down just like she was right beside her. "I'm really sorry Joyice." The girl huffed out a laugh and looked over at the spirit. "Yeah, me too.. I just got so mad when I saw you, then I got really sad... I didn't know which one be more of, so I went with being mad.." The girl looked back to the sky and heaved a large sigh. "And then you started yelling about Edgar, yeah I know he's a punk and his pranks are bad but... He's my friend." Jack hummed and looked at the gray-blue sky as he thought about what she said. He knew he was in the wrong for leaving her behind after she moved and for saying all the things he did about Edgar, even if they where true, so he was at a loss for words. So Jack did what he did best, He had fun, scooping up of heap of snow Jack dumped it over the girls face and jumped up out of arms reach and leaned onto his staff watching the teen splutter and wipe at her face to get the frozen fluff off of it. "Jack Frost!" Jack laughed loudly as he flew into the air as the girl got up and dashed at him with all intentions of tackling him to the ground but only ending up in a heap in the snow. "Looks like it's time to make up for lost time! Let's play tag!" With that Jack flew up to Bunnymund and Jamie whom were shocked still and tapped the Pooka on the shoulder firmly. "You're it Cottontail!" With that he flew off into the air leaving the two to shake off their shock, Jamie was first and grinned widely and took off away from Bunny and towards the girl whom had a small smile on her face as she waited to see if the rabbit would play with them. "Oi! Ya ain't gettin' away from me ya bloody show pony!" And Bunny jumped into action as he chased the kids around the small clearing, thus starting a war with him and Jack of who was faster and better at this game.

The group was laid out in the snow as they tried to catch their breath having been running around the clearing as their game brought out the best in Joyice as she bobbed and weaved through the snow to avoided the others, even Jack had a hard time catching her as she used trees to fling herself away from her chasers and would home-run slide under Bunny's legs making him curse and Joyice would laugh like she was crazy. At one point Joyice used a trees limbs to leap onto an unsuspecting Jack and tumbled to the ground as their landing was softened only by the wind catching them slightly just before they hit the ground to hard. Jamie fair no better as she would hide and wait for the best moment to surprise him and jump on his back screaming 'GOT YA' into his ear and falling forward to faceplant into the snow as she bounded off to hide again. She got Bunny almost the same way but she came flying at his face from a trees pine needles sending him to the ground and standing over him like a champion and skipped, freaking skipped away to stand on the stump she kicked earlier to do a little victory dance. The males looked to one another as she did her dance and advanced on her quietly as she busied herself with mocking them she didn't see them before it was too late and was promptly tackled to the ground and they landed in a heap in the snow, all laughing and breathing heavily, this is how they were right now. "I haven't had that much fun in years!" Joyice huffed out as she sat up and dusted the snow off her arms and then stood up and did the same thing to her jacket and pants. She turned to the guys with a thoughtful look before a bright smile lite up her face. "I guess I can't stay mad at you Frost." She held her hand out to the winter spirit whom looked at her for a moment before taking it and letting her help him up and she dusted off his hoodie before placing her hands on his shoulders. "I understand, Jack." Was all she said before hugging him tightly catching them all off guard. "But, I just ruined your friendship.." As much as he disliked Edgar he didn't want Joyice to be sad and if she was because of him, well Jack didn't know if he could make up for that. A very unladylike snort came from the teenager and she pulled back and held him at arms length. "Jack." She started and shook her head. "Edgar does this all the time. We fight bout a lot of things and were just fighting before you showed up same as last night, we had a fight before moving and now he's taking it out on you." She paused looking down and let her hands drop from Jacks shoulders. "And so was I. Jack, I never blamed you for anything I swear. I understand you had responsibilities and a duty as a spirit of winter and warm weather isn't your most favorite thing." She looked back at him and smiled softly. "I'm back now and from the looks of it I'm staying for a good while." Jack smiled and nodded chancing a glance at Bunny before darting his eyes away from that sly grin on the Pooka's face not sure why the look made flush. "I need to get home now guys, my Moms gonna be cracked if I show up late, again." The girl grinned widely, almost looking like a cheshire cat when she did, and waved before taking off out of the clearing to leave the boys to themselves as they gathered themselves up off the ground.

"That's the ankle-bitta I remember." Bunny said as he sighed and rolled his shoulders, an act not unnoticed by Jack, and walked to a tree to lean on and rest. Jacks eyes followed him for a moment before turning to Jamie and grinned. "Are all girls like that?" Jamie sputtered slightly and waved his hands. "H-how and I supposed to know that?" The two boys laughed and Jack leaned on his staff glad to have a least started to fix his screw up with one of his believers. "So, you managed to worm your way back into her life eh?" Jack turned on the spot to glare at Edgar whom had stood a few feet away from him with his arms crossed. Edgar mde his way up to Jack and grabbed him by the collar of his hoodie to glare fully into his eyes, Jack didn't budge he only glared right back. "Think your hot shit because your with the them now?" Edgar jerked his head over to Bunny as said rabbit made his way over to them, his fist clenched and ready to strike at any moment, he only stopped when Jack held out his hand. "I haven't changed at all Ed, I simply want to fix what I screwed up and you know that." Edgar's eye twitched at the shortened version of his name and Jack smirked taking great pride in annoying the Halloween spirit, Edgar started to shake Jack a bit at seeing him smirk. "You think this funny? I don't!" Jack had enough and brought his hands up to rip the other spirits hand way. "Shut up! You don't know me as well as you think you do, I screwed up and I'm trying to fix it. If you don't like it, well tough shit for you!" Jack huffed and crossed his own arms and tapped the crook of his staff to the side of his head. The two mischief makers glared at each other in their own little stand off, neither moving from their spots as they glared. Jack took his staff and swung it and nailed Edgar in the side of the head, it wasn't hard but it still mde the Halloween spirits head tilt to the side. Edgar's eyes narrow and it makes Bunny take a step forward ready to snatch Jack up if Edgar decided that he was going to try something, Bunny paused as laughter rang through the air and they all looked at the Halloween spirit with head thrown back and a hearty almost cackling laugh was thrown into the air around them and Jack just had a look in between annoyance and shock. "Alright Frost, Alright! I get it!" The spirit tilted his head back and to the side as he grinned at Jack crookedly. Jack went to bring his staff back to side but Edgar had other ideas as he grabbed the crook and yanked Jack to his side causing the winter spirit to yelp and collided into Edgar making them stumble slightly. "Hey! Let go!" Edgar laughed and snaked his arm around Jacks torso and held him to his side. "Whats wrong Frosty?" Bunny's ears went rigid when Edgar grabbed Jack and pretty much pasted him to his side and wrapped his arm around him. He was about to tear the spirit apart until Jack started struggling. "Let go of me! You know I hate being touched!" Jack wormed his way out of Edgars grip and floated to stand behind the Pooka once more seeking out his protection. 'Jack doesn't like to be touched?' Bunny thought about it for a moment and noticed that Jack was a few steps away from him, enough so that if Bunny turned around he wouldn't be touching him. He also remembered he never touched anyone willingly, when Tooth would hug or cling to him he would never hug back the only time he hugged someone back was when Jamie hugged him as a kid and even that was hesitant and unsure. "Frostbite?" Jack looked up at the nickname, his eyes were wide for a moment before he turned them away to glare at the Halloween spirit again, Bunny turned to look at said spirit to see his hands up in defense. "Sorry Frosty, but I just had to be sure you meant making it up to Joyice before she got hurt." The spirit dropped his hands and his face dropped its smirk and crossed his arms again. "There's something about her you all need to know, but it'll have to wait until after February." Jamie looked at the other Guardians in confusion. "Is there something wrong with her?" Edgar tilted his head from side to side making a groaning sound as he made a show of thinking before righting himself and sighing. "Noooo... Nothing wrong with her but..." Edgar shook his head and uncrossed his arms. "Like I said, you'll have to wait till after February." With that Edgar was gone in the black and purple tornado leaving the group to think about what he told them.

"What could he have been talking about?" Jamie asked as Jack made a groaning sound that made Bunny look at him and tilt his head. "What?" Jack shook his head nd tapped his staff on the ground in an irritated fashion with something akin to a pout on his face making Bunny's nose twitch at the sight. "I don't know but I don't like it. Edgar is nothing but trouble and I'm worried about Joyice being around him." It was obvious that Jack had spent some time with the Halloween spirit and Bunny made a note to grill Jack about it later but right now he seemed to be very worried and upset so Bunny thought a distraction would be the best thing for him right now. "Well, well figure it out later but lets get Jamie back and head back to the Warren." The two boys looked at him strangely. "Or did ya already forget that ya'd help me with Easter?" Jacks eyes widened and he slapped his forehead softly. "Aww geez! Sorry I forgot, lets go Jamie I got work to do." With that the two boys raced off back to Jamies house so Jack could make sure he got there and waited for Bunny to open a tunnel, when Bunny did they made it off to the Warren so Jack could help out and make up for lost time.

...

Translations: These are really rough so keep in mind that I don't speak it.

"Vous ne savez pas quoi que ce soit! Vous n'avez jamais venu me voir ainsi comment vous savez quelque chose ?! : You don't know anything! You never came to see me so how do you know anything?!

Vous n'avez pas! : You do not!

Vous n'avez pas un mot dire dans tout ce que je fais! Plus maintenant. : You don't a say in anything that I do! Not anymore.

Vous les gars oublié à propos de moi! Puis je reviens et vous insulter mon seul ami! : You guys forgot about me! Then I come back and you insult my only friend!


	2. Dreams and Warnings

February 13th.

Tomorrow was Valentines Day and Jack sighed heavily at Jamies rambling about what kind of gifts and candies to get for the girls at his school. Jack didn't really care about a holiday where you bribed people to love each other, in fact he found this to be ridiculous. Most of the time couples walked around pawing at each other or had their tongues down their throats, Jack shivered at the thought. It's fine to do that behind closed doors but not in public. "Hey jack, do you have a Valentine?" Jack jumped from his train of thought and stared at Jamie for a moment. "No, I guess not." Jack mumbled as he looked around the clearing, at the moment they were waiting on Joyice to show up to spend the day together in their new hideaway. She always seemed so busy, they learned that she was home schooled but her sister went to school and she watched her when there parents had to work. Which was a lot it seemed. She really only got time to herself at night or on the weekends when her parents took her sister to their grandparents home.

Today was Saturday and like before Joyice's family went off the their Grandparents leaving the girl to herself. "Guys! I'm here!" The boys looked over to the teen girl whom had an armful of items and watched her flop down onto her knees in front of them. "I have gifts!" She grinned widely at them. She had opened up to them a bit over the weeks but she still seemed to have a large wall that would come up if they asked to many question. "What kind of gifts?" Jamie asked eyeing the small bags in her arms. "Well, tomorrow is Valentine's Day so I'm giving out candy." She let a tiny giggle out as she handed and small plastic bag out to both boys, Jamie took the bag eagerly and started to pull at the pretty ribbon that kept it closed and dug out one of the heart shaped chocolates with a grin. Jack took his bag a bit slower and looked confused as she handed out another one for him to take. "This ones for Bunny!" She smiled and Jack twitched at the thought but it only made sense that she would make one for the Easter Bunny. It didn't stop Jack from feeling the pang of jealousy at the thought.

"I didn't know you liked Valentines Day." Jack mumbled taking the treat bag and placing it in his hoodie pocket. The girl just smiled softly and held the last bag to her chest. It was a nice warm day despite it being early February so Joyice was wearing a light black sweater and tight dark blue jeans with her black boots, her hair fell around her face kinda like Sophie's did when she was younger but Joyice's hair was neater. "I love all the holidays." She said and gave a soft smile to the the bag in her hands. "And my friend is coming to visit today so I had to do something for her." Jacks shoulders relaxed at the mention of her friends gender. 'Good it's not Edgar.' He thought to himself and decided to dig into the treats she had given him so he wouldn't look rude. Popping a chocolate into his mouth he hummed softly, it was really good! "You guys like them? I made them myself!" The boys stared at her as she grinned proudly. "I made some for all the kids in the neighborhood and the Guardians." The boys looked at each other and grinned giving her two thumbs up each. "These are great!" Jamie said and ate another chocolate.

They laughed and poked fun at each other as they sat around the clearing until Jamie decided to head home since he had been out in the cold since that morning, he waved at the two still sitting in the snow as he left the clearing. "Well, you better get home too." Jack stood up and dusted the snow off his old pants and was about to head to Bunny's to give him his treats when Joyice's voice stopped him. "Jack, I need to talk to you." Jack looked down and flinched when he saw the worried look on her face and sat down in front of her so she had his undivided attention and urged her on with a gesture of his hand. "Well, I-I.. Do you believe in physic powers?" Jack stared at her oddly. "Joy, I'm an un-dead spirit of winter and your asking if I believe in something?" Jack gave a crooked grin as she blushed and rubbed at her arm. "Jack, I... I've been having these dreams and... They started when I found out we were moving back." Jack spun his wrist trying to get an answer out of her rambling making her sigh heavily.

"They revolve around you and me Jack, and it's not good." Jack laughed slightly and waved his hand. "It's just a bad dream, I'll tell Sandy to make sure to drop by so you don't have them anymore." The girl groaned and stood up in a huff and paced slowly. "I asked you if you believed." Jack's smirk faltered and stood up as well to look at the teenager better. "I do believe, but Joy, dreams like that are brought by stress it could easily mean nothing." The girl whipped around at him and gave him a hard glare. "Jack! Don't you think I know that? I'm not stupid!" Jack flinched at the harsh tone she was using and sighed. "I'm sorry. But just because you dream of something bad, doesn't mean that it's going to happen." Joyice threw her hands up in exasperation just as she was about to say something Bunny came hopping out of a hole and towards them. "Oi! Frostbite, ay need to talk to ya." Jack, glad for the distraction, turned to give the Pooka his full attention. "Sure Bunny!" His hyped reply made Joyice growl at the pair. "Hey! I was talking to you Frost!" The two Guardians turned to the teenager and Jack flinched at her angry face and clenched fists, the look in her eyes made Jack want to melt into the ground to get away from it. "I'm trying to tell you something important and you're brushing me off like it means nothing!" The girl shouted at him then started yelling at him in French once more and she continued with this mindless yelling until Bunny stepped in. "Joy, what's going on?" The girl snapped to Bunny and her glare lightened slightly, not wanting to take out her anger on someone who didn't deserve it, Joyice took a deep breath and let it out in a huff. "I was trying to tell Jack about my premonitions."

Jack sighed and Bunny hummed. "Premonitions about what?" Joyice looked a little taken aback by Bunnys intrigued look and tone of voice but recovered quickly. "They always start the same." She started and sat down in the snow with a plop. "I'm with Jack and the rest of the Guardians, having a nice time, then everything goes black around us. When I look around everyone has weapons pointed at me, except I can't see Jack." Joyice's eye train on said spirit for a moment before looking down at her hands as they laid in her lap. "I look at my hands and see that my skin is dark and colorless with a power I've never had pulsing from them. I start looking around for Jack and when I see him.. He's.. H-he's.." Joyice groaned pitifully and hunched over slightly. "He's dead! And, and I look at my hands again and they're covered in blood! Dark, cold blood that's blue instead of red and I knew it was... Me.. I did it... I killed Jack!" She looked up and stared at Bunny. "It's not just a bad dream either! I've had the same dream for weeks now, ever since I found out I was coming back here, they haven't stopped." She stood then and walked up to Jack, she looked him in the eyes with all the emotions she could muster to try and get through Jacks thick head. "I don't want that to happen Jack, none of it and I need you to understand that this is really important."

Jack flinched when she got close and scooted towards Bunny, if only slightly, and nodded his head softly. "O-okay.. Okay, I get it. But, what do you want me to do?" The girl sighed and shook her head taking a step back. "I don't know Jack but, I just had to tell you." Bunny looked from the two teens and considered what the girl had told them. "I think you should see North an' Sandy an' tell 'em about yer dreams." That made the two look at him funny. "Why Bunny?" Jack tilted his head in a curious manner, that made him look oh so adorable, Bunny nodded his head and tried to squash the thought of Jack looking 'cute' down. "Yeah, they might be able to tell us what the dreams mean." The girl looked very surprised as her mouth hung open and her eyes went wide. "Really?" Seeing him nod made an excited smile rise to the girls face.

Before they could make any plans to move on a voice rang through the air and Joyice was snatched off the ground by a blur of red, white and pink. Spinning around they found Joyice being squeezed in a brutal hug by another spirit dressed rather provocatively and said girl was struggling in the spirits grip. Slowly they both lowered to the ground and the spirit let Joyice go. "Mon doux peu loveling! Comment êtes-vous ma douce?" The spirit said in French as she floated just an inch off the ground. Jack saw she was really pretty, even for a spirit. She was about 5'7 with hip long wavy blonde hair, her bust was a nice size without being too small or too big as her middle was wrapped in a tight white corset that pushed her breasts up nicely to make a perfect heart shape with the corsets dip and a bright red crystal heart rested on said dip to draw in the on-lookers eyes. The skirt made Jack blush a light blue as he saw the slit of the cloth go all the way up to her hip like the corset was the only thing holding it to her hips, showing off her long lovely thick thighs that had a guarder belt wrapped tightly around it as the skirt itself flowed like water past her feet that were clad in black stiletto heels that had a single strap around her ankles over light pink stockings that went up just above her knees.

Bunny saw the blush, he assumed that's what it was, and growled to himself softly so the others wouldn't hear him. A twisting knot of jealously made itself at home in his gut as he watched Jack ogling the other spirit that chatted away with the teenager. "Oh, Jack Frost! You're the talk of our world ya know!" The lovely spirit flew up to Jack and started pinching at his cheeks making the blush grow darker. "Sank yew..?" Jack slurred as she pulled his cheeks and cooed at she cuteness. "Oh he is sooo cute! Doux comme le chocolat!" She cooed again as she let go of his face and turned to the girl to chatter in French once more. "Liliane! Don't do that, it's rude!" The girl said placing her hand on her hips to scold the spirit.

Jack flinched when the woman turned to him again and all but dashed to hide behind Bunny when she reached for his face again. "Not again, please." Bunny's chest puffed out slightly in pride as Jack hid behind him, the little winter spirit choosing him, a great Pooka warrior, over an under dressed vixen made his ego inflate greatly so he decided that him keeping quiet was not an option at the moment. "Oi, keep yer hands to yerself, Jack don't like it." The woman looked at him for a moment before smiling and moving into his personal space and started chattering at him at speeds he didn't think possible. "Cupid!" They all looked to the teen that had yelled and saw her with her arms crossed and tapping her foot. "Would you leave them alone?" The spirit sighed and floated over to the teen. "Sorry mon angel I just wanted to cuddle him! He's so cute and everyone is talking about him!" Joyice sighed. "That doesn't mean you try and pull his face off! Relax will you? And apologize to Jack for grabbing him without permission." The woman pouted, sticking her bottom lip out then sighed when the teen just gave her a pointed look and turned to the pair. "Sorry sugardrop, I just couldn't help myself." Jack nodded as he accepted her apology. "Oh!" She exclaimed and floated back to Joyice very excitedly. "Do have anything for me? Hm, hm?" She asked and flitted around the girl. "Oh, yeah. Here." She held up the bag of goodies she had made and the spirit took them with gentle gloved hands. Jack blinked then dug through his hoodie pocket for the bag he was going to give Bunny. "Here, Joy made one for you too." Bunny blinked and reached for the the bag in Jacks pale hands, letting the pads of his paws brush those pale fingers as he took the bag from them. Looking it over he untied it and reached for the sweets that weren't chocolates and popped one just so he wouldn't be rude. "S'good." He mumbled and tied off the bag to his bandolier before turning to the spirit fluttering happily as she ate the chocolates.

"Ooooh, these are so good! And home made! Merveilleux! Merveilleux!" The woman was reeling in the taste of the goodies making the girl puff up in pride. When the woman came down from her candy high she brought her gloved hands up to pat at the girls waist and sides. "Hey! Stop that!" The girl shouted and swatted at the spirits hands whom quickly grabbed them and glared softly. "I must make sure you're eating properly! Last time I visited you hadn't eaten in days!" With that she batted the girls hands away and patted at her sides and stomach once more. Jack shared a look with Bunny as they watched the love spirit fuss over the girl until finally she pulled away and crossed her arms over her chest. "When did you eat today?" A long pause pressed over them when the girl didn't answer right away. "I've been busy all day..." Cupid huffed loudly and uncrossed her arms. "Joyice! You must eat! It's not good for you to go without eating!" Joyice looked over to Bunny and Jack for support but they only held their hands up. "I agree with Cupid mate, ya need to eat." Joyice sighed loudly and slumped back in defeat. "Fiiiine!" She whined and made her way out of the clearing to her home. "Come, come you two must follow us today." The Love spirit said as she floated up to Bunny and pulled on his arm gently. "Oi! Why do we have to follow?" Bunny growled when she went to reach for Jack making her pull back quickly, looking behind to see Joyice almost out of the clearing she turned back to them very seriously. "I believe Joyice will be in danger today. I need you two here with her, please." The two Guardians looked at each other before Jack nodded and floated away to follow Joyice out of the clearing. "He's so cute when he's serious." Cupid cooed and smiled at Bunny whom tried very hard to repress a growl at her comment making the spirit giggle girlishly. "Don't worry Aster I know better then to interfer with budding love." She giggled again and fluttered away to follow the two teens ahead of them. "Oi! I ain't in love!"

...

..

~...~...~...~

...

..

Upon entering Joyice's home Bunny and Jack noticed the boxes were still packed and unopened as well some of the furniture wasn't put together all the way. "So, you said that your family was gone for the weekend right?" Jack asked as he eyed an unusual lamp in the middle of the room. It's wood was twisted into a long spiral shape almost like his staff, but the wood was dark and shiny, the top was frayed out to look like twisted branches and the light bulb made it look like a crystal ball sat in the middle. What a strange lamp, like, really. His attention was so wrapped into the lamp that he almost missed Joyice talking. "Yeah they leave every other weekend to see the Grands." She muttered dragging Jack away from the lamp and towards the kitchen.

When she reached into the cabinet to grab something a voice made her stop mid action. "And you better not try to pass off bread as a meal." Cursing softly Joyice closed the cabinet and went to the fridge and rummaged through it before pulling out a pot and placing it on the stove. "I'll have some leftover soup, okay?" With a nod of approval Joyice went about heating up her meal. "Ow!" The party snapped their heads to Bunny who was rubbing his foot and glaring at a... Bunny? "Nipper! There you are!" The teen moved over to Bunny and picked up the much smaller rabbit and nuzzling it to her face. "The bugger bit me." Bunny growled as he glared at the animal that seemed to glare back. "Nipper didn't really bite you, he gave you warning that you're in his territory." She grinned and nuzzled the rabbit again before it moved to perch on her shoulder as she moved to stir the soup and replace the cover. "Does he bite often?" Jack asked wiry of the nipping animal. "Only if he feels like your a threat to me or his space. He probably bit Bunny because he knows he's a rabbit too and a male." She laughed as Nipper gave a growl to the Easter Bunny before nuzzling into her neck, she reached up to pull the rabbit from her shoulder and snuggle him to her chest. "Who's my big strong buck, hm? You are of course!" Joyice giggled as Nipper rubbed his nose on her face before licking at it. "Buck?" Joyice and Bunny looked at Jack's confused face for moment before Joyice giggled quietly making Jack flush in embarrassed confusion. "A male bunny is called a buck and a female one is called a doe." Understanding washed over Jack's face at the explanation and nodded quickly. "What about baby bunnies? Are they called something or just baby bunnies?" He had never thought to ask Bunny about it, mostly because it never came to his mind and when it did Bunny was never around, but now his curiosity was getting the better of him. "Oh they're called Kit's mostly but they can also be called kittens, but I like kits more." Jack nodded moving over to the girl and the nipping animal. "How many babies can they have?" Joyice tilted her head for a moment before answering. "They can have up fourteen at once, but the most common is six." Jack gaped at her for a moment. "Fourteen? All at once?!" Jack turned to Bunny then quickly turned away as a blush covered his cheeks at the thought of having that many babies at once and with Bunny made butterflys float around his stomach. "Oh! I'm so sorry Nipper I forgot to feed you!" With that she set the rabbit on the table and went back to the fridge and rumage through it before pulling out some baby carrots and a small plastic tin of mint grass. She opened the tin of mint and placed a small handful on the table before heading to the sink to prepare the carrots. "Now Joyice, don't forget your own food." Said Cupid warningly. "I got this, I got this." The teen waved off as she made the bunny's meal before returning to the pot of soup, then a thought hit her.

"Hey Jack, do you need to eat?" She turned to Jack who looked like he was ready to bolt from the question. "I mean, I know you're a spirit and all but, do you need to eat since your a kid like me?" Jack's fist tightened on his staff before sighing. "Yeah, not as often as normal people but, I do." The others looked at him for a moment making him shift from foot to foot. "When was the last time you ate?" Jack really didn't want to answer the girls question because he knew, just knew he would get a lecture about it but sighed and answered anyway. "I don't know, almost a week ago?" Bunny's neck almost broke when he snapped his head to the winter spirit in surprise. "Jack! Even I eat more then that, ya bloody drongo! You need to eat something!" Jack flinched away from Bunny a bit when he almost shouted at him about eating. "It's fine he can have some of the soup I'm having." Jack looks over at the girl in surprise but her back is turned to him. "Wait, what?" The girl laughed softly and looked over her shoulder. "What? There's enough for two and will it be so bad to have lunch with me?" A strange noise was made from the table making everyone look over to see a very annoyed looking Nipper. "Sorry, me and Nipper. Having lunch with me and Nipper." The rabbit gave a huff and returned to nibbling on a carrot. Jack saw no way out of this, what with Bunny's narrow eyes and Joy's offer out in the open, he agreed and sat at the table to wait for the meal, keeping a good distance from the nipping bunny that was happily munching on some mint.

They ate in silence for a good bit of the meal. When Jack was sure that Joy was pretty much done with her soup he spoke up. "Joy. When you have these dreams of yours... Do we have faces?" Joyice's head snapped up at him for a moment before returning to her bowl and finishing off what was left. "No. You guy's kinda look like manikin's but everything else is normal." Jack nodded then looked at him pretty much empty bowl. "Nipper? What is it?" Jack looked up to see the rabbits ears and nose twitching like there was something in the room with them before jumping from the table and out of the doggy flap of the back door. "Nipper! Dammit I told Sarah to lock that damn thing!" Joyice was out of the door before Jack could blink twice.

Jack jumped from the table and took off after the girl and rabbit with a yell for Bunny to follow. Something didn't feel right in his gut, like when North said he 'felt it in his belly' when Pitch attacked. "Nipper!" Jack heard Joyice shout from ahead of him. Slowing down by his lake Jack saw the teen looking up with wide eyes and followed her line of view only to have his eyes grow wide as well. Edgar floated above them with the most evil look he's ever seen on the Hallows Eve spirit. Edgar never looked like this! Pure evil and twisted smiles didn't suit the boy at all no matter how he looked.

"Jack!" He had just enough time to see see a nightmare coming at him before a body crashed into him and flung both of them out of the way and hit the ground hard. Jack's eyes flutter open to see Joyice above him, shielding him from Edgar as she glared at her friend. "Jack," She started, never taking her eyes off the floating Halloween Spirit. "Get to Bunny and Liliane, then you need to run." Jack was about to protest but Joyice looked at him then, fierce and hard with no room to argue. "Go, Jack. Now." She was off him in a second and was running at full speed towards Edgar, a speed that he didn't know a human could have. He scrambled up and towards Bunny in a beat of wind and stood by the stunned hare.

Joyice hadn't ran at Edgar like he thought she was, no, instead she ran right under him and past him toward the other end of the frozen lake and never once slipping on the ice. Her arm cocked back to the point her upper body turned sideways slightly as she ran forward then, to his and Bunny's surprise, a powerful light emitted from her drawn back fist and with a powerful swipe of an open palm, white sand rushed from her very body and out towards the empty woods. Only it wasn't empty, not anymore. A rush of black and white sand flew from the woods and around the lake as it fought with one another in a twisting mass of sharp and angry tornados. "Bunny, what's happening?" Jack asked in a voice that was barely heard over the shrieking sands, but Bunny heard him. He always heard him no matter how softly he spoke. "Ay dun't know Jack.."

Jack looked up from Joyice directing the sand to Edgar whom seemed to be doing the same thing. Something wasn't right. Edgar didn't have the power to use Nightmare sand for crying out loud! Only Pitch could do that! Jack was looking around then, looking for the Nightmare King or one of his Fearlings. He found none. Looking back he saw Edgar pushing back at Joyice to force her onto her knees with the power of the sand as she tried doing the same to him in a twisted tug of war game. Jack moved then and before he could fully understand what he was going to do, he swung his staff at Edgar sending out a blast of ice, not to harm him of course, just enough to make him faulter so Joyice could ground him with the sand she was wielding. Which she did. Once Edgar had moved his eyes from her to Jack she pushed herself up and used a bit of white sand to fling herself forward and slam right into Edgars chest, making them both tumble to the ice.

Bunny was moving then, lounging forward and used his large size to pin Edgar down with little to no effert on his part. "Jack, freeze his arms and legs down!" Bunny ordered and was pleased when Jack wasted no time in doing what he was told. Jack used the strongest ice he could summon to freeze the spirits limbs to the ice under them. When Aster was sure the Halloween spirit wasn't going to be moving anytime soon he stood up and nodded at Jack. "Good onya Snowflake." He praised and smirked to see that frosted blush cross his face at the nickname and praise.

Then they rounded on the teenage girl. She was breathing heavily with her hands on her knees and shaking like a leaf. Before they could tear into her she turned towards the battling sands above them and with a heavy breath raised her arms up into the air, palms up and fingers flexing in crocked angles, she twisted her arms sharply and the white sand followed her every move. Jack and Bunny thought of Sandy while watching her and before they knew it the black sand was now white and sparkling with energy so pure Jack thought he would go blind just looking at it. She turned to them and both Aster and Jack took in a sharp breath of air. Her eyes were pure white! There was no sign of the iris or the pupil. Jack gulped loudly and moved behind Bunny, and to Asters surprise, pressed himself close to his back and brought the hand that wasn't holding his staff up to hold onto the fur between Bunny's shoulder blades. The power that rolled of the girl was so strong that Bunny had to clench his fists painfully tight to resist the urge to back away so Jack wouldn't be scared. The boy was shaking, he could feel it on his back by the hand that was dug into his fur.

A gentle voice rang through the air and broke the boys out of their tense and defencive state. The voice came from Joyice. A delicately deep and soothing voice that echoed so softly that it was almost missed by the males. Her voice seemed to sooth every bone in their bodies until they forgot why they were so tense in the first place. As the song continued its lovely melody Jack slumped forward onto Bunny's back making him snap out of his trance and turn to catch him before he fell face first on the ground. "Jack, mate! Don't pass out on me now!" Jack looked up at him in a daze before he blinked, blinked again and then his eyes went wide before he fought his way out of Bunny's grip, frosting heavily and turning from him for a moment before turning back to Joyice.

She was now bent over a struggling Edgar whom hissed at her as he refused to look her in the eyes. She paused in her singing to place her hands on his face and turned him to look at her making his eyes grow wide. She smiled at him and began to sing once more. The white sand swirled around her head shortly before it forced itself through Edgars pores and into his body. The Halloween spirit thrashed harshly and screamed, no words came from his shouting nor pain just... Screaming. Whatever she was doing it wasn't hurting Edgar, at least Jack had hoped so. Her voice was so sweet and calming though, Jack couldn't stop listening to the lovely words as they came.

It was when she stopped singing that it took a frightening turn. Edgar screamed loudly again as black sand ripped itself from every pore on his body followed by the white sand as well. Edgar slumped to the ground from his arch as he fell unconscious while Joyice let go of his face to work her pure white sand around the black mass that was slowly growing smaller and smaller. When it was finally all white the sand swirled around harshly before it surged forward into Joyice's heart with a soft white light and disappeared before the Guardians had a chance to fully understand what was happening. Joyice gasped harshly as her eyes reappeared slowly, she had just enough time to grin crookedly before she too slumped forward and over Edgar into a deep sleep.

"What in the fuck just happened? I mean, what the hell was all of that!" Jack cursed making Bunny look at him with wide eyes, he never thought Jack could speak in such a way, but he had. They turned to Liliane as she scooped up Nipper and made her way to the rest of the group. "I told you my lovelies, something was going to happen today." The love spirit said as she fluttered over to them and landed softly next to Joyice's sleeping form. "I have a lot to tell you boys but I believe we should tell the other guardians, no?" She smiled sweetly and turned to face Jack. "You will have to carry Nipper darling, I have to carry Joyice." Jack fliched, he really didn't want to be bitten by a rabbit but held out his arms for the animal anyway. Nipper snuggled himself into Jacks chest and gave off a soft purring like noise making Jack laugh lightly while he unfroze Edgar from his prison. Bunny glared at the rabbit after hauling the spirit over his shoulder and tapping his foot onto the ground to open up a hole for them to use. That damn thing knew what it was doing and Aster didn't like it one little bit.

..

...

..

Eden: I've been without internet for like ever so it's going to be hard to upload chapters... Sorry! But I made this one much shorter then the first so I hope you enjoy!

Translations:

Doux comme le chocolat! : As Sweet as chocolate!

Merveilleux : Wonderful!


	3. Confessions of the Past

...

..

.

When Joyice came back to consciousness she almost had a panic attack, she awoke to a room she had never been in before. It was a small white room that smelled like bleach and mothballs. 'A hospital..?' She thought to herself as her eyes darted around the room like a cornered animal. "Easy Loveling, you are safe." Joyice's body noticeably relaxed while she turned her head towards her pink feathered friend. The beautiful angel of love was floating just beside her bed as she watched over her. "What happened?" Joyice's own voice shocked her, it was rough and tired, like she swallowed some sharp rocks. "Well Loveling, you just showed how unique you really are." Joyice groaned and reached her right hand up to rub at her eyes but winced at the twinge of pain she felt in her wrist. Pulling her arm back she looked at her wrist to see it wrapped in bandages to keep it from moving. "You sprained your wrist in your little tiff with Hallow."

"Edgar!" Joyice sat up quickly and instantly regretted it as a surge of pain went through her whole body making her slump over. Lilliane was patting her back gently and cooing at her softly to try and calm her ragged breathing. "Deep breaths Sugardrop, deep breaths." After a few minutes of hard breathing Joyice was able to sit up properly without pain. "Where's Edgar?" Lilliane smiled her knowing smile and giggled girlishly to make Joyice blush. "He's with the others, waiting on you." The teen nodded and made her way to leave the bed, much more slowly then when she sat up a moment ago, with Lilliane's help she was up and walking to the door. The teen sighed heavily as they left the room and went down a very Christmas-y hallway to a room with a very large globe in it. She wasn't looking forward to explaining herself to Jack, let alone the others, because she still wasn't too sure where the power came from in the first place anyway.

"Joyice!" The girl looked up to see Jack floating over to her and tried to smile at him, but it faded away quickly when a twinge of pain leapt through her torso making her slump over Lillianes arm slightly as it supported her. "Urgh..." Everything seemed to stop as Jack helped her stand up right and walk over to a chair to rest on. "Thanks..." The teen mumbled still trying to regain her breath. "You should have rested more if you can't walk." Jack scolded making Joyice laugh softly. "Eh heh heh... Scolded by Jack Frost of all people? I must-a really messed up.." She joked lightly looking up at the frost spirit to see a smirk on his face. "This isn't funny Joy!" The girl winced at the anger in the Hallows Eve spirit's voice, she didn't dare look at him because she knew he would have an angry look on his face. "It kind of is... I mean, a puny human girl knocked you flat on your back." Jack said giving the angry spirit a smirk before turning back to the teen girl. "Joyice. What was that back there? Are you a spirit?" Joyice sighed and leaned on the table to rest her head on her arms. She took a brief look around the room before she would answer, she saw the big four was there, Bunny and Santa, along with the Tooth Fairy and Sandman all sitting at the table she was leaning on, waiting for her answer.

"No. I'm not a spirit, I'm human... Ish.. I don't know where the power came from or why, it came to me when I was..." Joyice trailed off as she remembered that night, it wasn't something she remembered fondly nor did she want to remember it at all. She spared a glance at Edgar for a moment before lying her head back down on her arms. "I think I was thirteen? Something like that and in a very... Dark place... When I thought I'd never get out, the power came to me and, well, I don't know really." Joyice looked up from her arms to see an elf offering her a plate of cookies and she snatched one up to eat quickly, patting the elf on the head softly before she looked over the room. "I used to train with this... Sand power, until recently. My control of these powers started to slip from me so we thought it was best to stop for awhile."

"We?" Joyice looked over to Santa and nodded. "We. As in, Lilliane, Edgar and myself." All eyes turned to Joyice's spirit friends accusingly as Joyice nibbled on some more cookies before the questioning began again. "You did not tell us that a child could use unknown power?" North asked hotly as he eyed the spirits in question. Edgar glared at the spirit of Christmas. "And what would you have done if we did, hm? Lock her up? Leave her fate to MIM without a choice for her? We were doing what was best for her." The Tooth Fairy flitted around the room with her fairies for a moment before addressing Edgar. "I'm sorry Hallow but how can you possibly know what's best for her?" The Halloween spirit growled loudly, slamming his hands on the table and standing up stiffly. "We know her better the lot of you! We've been with her since she was kid, been with her through those dark times of her life when there was no hope, no joy, no dreams and no wonder in her life!" Lilliane flapped her wings harshly in her anger. "I agree. We know her far better than you Guardians, You couldn't be bothered with just one child so we took over where you were lacking." Lilliane's wings flapped hard once more as she laid her hands on Joyice's shoulders when the teen started coughing again.

"You know we can't just drop everything for one child when we have a whole world of children to protect." Bunny stated softly but it only seemed to egg Edgar on more. "What kind of Guardians are you if you can't protect one child from even herself?!" He shouted making Joyice splutter out her drink and cough violently. "Kof Kof! Edgar! Kof Shut up already!" The teen cut in harshly as she stood up to look the spirit in the eye. "Just shut up!" The two had a heated glare off before Edgar tsked and stomped over to a fireplace off to the side.

Joyice sighed softly before plopping down into the chair with a wince. "Look, all you need to know is that I don't know where the power came from or why because that's all either of us know." Silence reigned over the group for a moment before they heard Edgar groan loudly and start coughing heavily. "Edgar?" Joyice got up and hobbled her way to the spirit as he leaned on the fireplace mantle as he couched up black sand. "Edgar! Is there still sand in you? I thought I got rid of it!" She put her hands on the spirits chest to feel for the sand if she could, she was still weak at the moment. "I did too.." He coughed and groaned as he bent to one knee. Joyice looked over the spirit quickly before placing her hands on his back, something was off, it didn't feel right. "What the...?" Without warning her hands fazed through Edgar's back making him yelp and the others stand up in alarm, all but Lilliane of course. "This is not right..." The teen mumbled as her hands moved about in Edgar's back as she searched.

"There!" Joyice grit her teeth as she pulled at what she found harshly making Edgar groan in pain and then yelp as it was pulled from him. Joyice fell backwards from the force of pulling the squirming mass from the spirit and held onto it tightly. "What the hell..?" Jack took a step forward before Bunny grabbed his shoulder and pulled to make him stand behind the hare. They watched as the girls body glowed and white sand flowed from her chest and around the black mass in her grip.

However the mass didn't do anything more then just turn the white sand black and grow bigger instead. "I-I don't get it... I can't turn the sand white like before!" Joyice was beginning to have trouble holding onto the wriggling mass of semi-solid black sand and looked to Lilliane for something, anything to help her. "I've got it Loveling! Make a small sphere of sand, like a hollow ball!" The girl looked confused at first but did as she was told. "Good! Now put it in the fire and make it glass." Understanding crossed her face as she let it hover over the flames to crystalize. "Jack I need your help, quickly!" The girl stood as she struggled with the mass and made the now crystal sphere hover towards her and forced the mass into it and closed the hole with her hands and hissing as it burnt her fingers. Jack quickly floated out from behind Bunny and too the girl. "Use your power to harden the glass, quickly before it breaks free." Nodding Jack breathed in deeply and letting it out slowly so he wouldn't make the glass brittle. Once it was done the glass plopped into Joyice's hands and the black sand tapped violently against the glass. "Good, it worked..." With a sigh the teen girl handed the glass sphere to Jack before she fell to the ground with a hard thump.

"Joyice!" Edgar crawled up to her side and placed his ear to her back and sighed with relief to hear her heart still going. He groaned as he lifted her up and then placed her on a loveseat near the fireplace then turned to the glass ball in Jacks hands. "I knew something was still wrong with me... I could feel that darkness crawling up my very spine as it tried to take over me again." Jack stared at the ball for a moment before looking back up at Edgar and taking a step forward. "Are you okay now?" The spirit looked at him surprised then grinned softly. "Yeah, Yeah I'm fine Snowball." Jack sighed softly and nodded as he looked away. "Good 'cause you really scared me back there.. That... Look you had on your face, it just wasn't you, ya know?" Jack rubbed at the back of his neck and turned to face Joyice as she slept. "well, well Snowball, I didn't think you cared." Edgar grinned, "In fact, I thought you hated me." Jack shook his head quickly. "I don't hate you but, I do think you're a little too extreme in your pranks and well, most of what you do." Edgar chuckled at this. "You never were much of a Halloween fan." They laughed together and Jack hated to admit it, even to himself, that he kind of missed Edgar and his pranks. Least he didn't act like Jack hadn't existed for those 300 plus years, but he wasn't bitter or anything, no not really.

A whimper caught the groups attention, it came from the teen laying on the loveseat. Her eyes were closed tightly and she was curling in on herself as if to get away from whatever she was dreaming about. "Damn, another Nightmare." Sandy seemed to jump up at the word 'Nightmare' and floated over to the whimpering girl and formed his sand over her head. "I wouldn't do that." No sooner had he said that did the sand turn white and disappear into Joyice's body, only making the nightmare worse in doing so it seemed. Sandy was wide eyed with his mouth open in shock, how could this be possible from a human child? This was unheard of and never, in all his years on this earth, had he seen a child be able to turn his sand and then absorb it. Making a few frantic signs above his head Sandy demanded answers, now. "I know, I know. Come, we'll tell you all that we know."

"When I first met Joyice she was, for lack of a better word, sad. She was a lonely child, her parents all but ignored her and left her to her own devices, though she was creative she couldn't keep her mind from wondering to sadness." Edgar took the seat Joyice had been in not five minutes ago and rested his elbow on the table and laid his head into his palm. "I met her on Halloween. Playing pretend in her backyard, at seven o'clock at night no less, when all the children would be trick or treating. So, I went to take a closer look and saw she wasn't playing pretend, no, she was playing with a fairy." Everyone's eyes went right to Tooth making her feathers bristle a bit. "It couldn't have been my fairies! They're too busy for that." The others nodded and looked back to Edgar for more. "No, it wasn't a tooth fairy, it was one of my shadow fairies." Jack gave a choked laugh. "You have fairies?!" Edgar's eyes narrow slightly as his devil grin spread across his face. "That's not all I have. You left before you got to see all the wonders of Halloween, Snowball." Bunny's ears pressed tighter to the back of his head at Edgar's words, he couldn't help the jealousy from gripping his chest like it was. True, in the past he and Jack hadn't really been friends but the thought of someone, anyone, being around his Jack. Wait... His?!

"I knew that if she could see my fairies then she believed in me so I had to figure out why she wasn't out getting candy, boy was I in for a shock when I did." Edgar laughed at the memory of a very excited Joyice holding a fairy that was just as surprised.

.

..

Flashback

..

.

She was a sweet child, a little hyper at meeting a spirit, but very sweet. "You're Skeleton Jack! Spirit of Halloween!" Edgar was surprised by the name, not many kids called him that. "I am, but you can call me Edgar." The girl tilted her head cutely then smiled brightly. "I knew you were real! Is this your fairy?" Edgar looked down at a slightly shaken fairy in her tiny hands. "Indeed, she was looking for kids to prank, but it looks like you got her before she could get you eh?" The girl giggled and patted the fairy softly before letting her go to fly out of her backyard to do her job. "She tried to scare me, but I'm not scared of anything!" The girl sounded very proud of this and it made Edgar grin. "If you're not scared, then why aren't you out there getting candy?" The girl seemed to deflate at the question before getting angry and turn away from him. "Who needs to dress up and go around to people's houses to get candy anyway? That sounds stupid." The girl huffed loudly and took off towards a tree that she soon climbed into and hid away in. Edgar was surprised, he's never had a child believe in him but not like trick or treating before.

Edgar went to the tree and stood under it. "Do you not have a costume? I think you are scared." He heard rustling in the trees branches for a moment until the girl popped out at him, upside down and with her arms crossed. "I have a costume, a scary one!" Edgar grinned, now he just had to reel her in. "Well, why not show me?" The girl glared and twisted her body so she flipped off the branch she was hanging from, landing on her bare feet and taking off to her home she shouted. "You'll see!" Making Edgar grin more.

When she finally came out she was wearing a black robe that was ripped at the bottom and the hood covered most of her face, she carried a large scythe, a toy of course and her eyes were lined with dark makeup to make her eyes look sunken in. "Ooooh, scary!" Edgar grinned as she wielded the toy scythe like a real weapon making him hold up his hands. "I mean it! Pretty cool costume!" The girl grinned and pulled her scythe back to her side and put a fist on her hip. "I know! I picked it out and did the makeup myself!" Edgar laughed and patted the girl on the head. "You look pretty scary! C'mon let's go get some candy eh?" The girl swatted his hand away. "I can't." Edgar frowned at that. "Any why not?" The girl looked down.

"My parent's said we were only dressing up this year, no trick or treating." Edgar's frown deepened. A parent telling their child that they couldn't go out and have fun? That wasn't right, children loved his holiday and he wasn't going to let this girl miss out on it either. "What are your parents doing now?" The girl tilted her head again and pointed to her home. "They're watching T.V.." Edgar nodded. "Follow me." He made his way to the house and looked into a window to see the parents were, in fact watching T.V.. Putting a finger to his lips he reached into his hoodie pocket and pulled out a black bag, reaching into it and pulling out some golden sand he had 'borrowed' from the Sandman he fazed through the window and moved to stand over the adults. Grinning he dumped the sand over their heads and they were out like lights.

Going back through the window he placed his hands on his hips as the girl gawked at him. "What did you do to them?" He laughed and patted the girl on the head. "No worries, their just asleep so we can go out and have some fun!" The girl looked so surprised by this that she stood still and silent for what felt like hours. Finally, a huge grin came across her face threatening to slit it. "Yes! Can we, can we?!" She was jumping up and down and tugging on Edgar's hoodie making him laugh. "And my parent's won't wake up and get me in trouble right?" Edgar just laughed and promised to have her back before her parents woke up they took off into the night. He made sure she got lots and lots of candy and had as much fun scaring people and being scared as possible before taking her home.

.

..

end of flashback

..

.

"Poor thing was knocked out when I brought her home but, she had the best time of her tiny life and I made sure of it. It wasn't until the next Halloween that I saw just how sad and lonely she really was and from then on that I made sure to visit her as often as possible." Jack couldn't believe what he was hearing, he never thought he would hear Edgar talk about a child with such fondness. He really cared about Joyice, so much so that he took time out of being a Guardian Spirit just to see her. "I.. I never thought you would care about a single child either." Jack admitted with the utmost shame to his voice, but Edgar only smiled. "It's easier for those of us that can work just one night a year. I've done the same thing for many of my children, not just Joyice however; Joyice is special. To both of us." He said turning to Lilliane making her nod. "Oui, she is my little loveling. I made sure she always knew what love could be like, as a mother figure of course." Lilliane smiled fondly at her own memories. "Sweet et tristes, comme le chocolat fondu."

.

..

Lillianes Flashback

..

.

It was only two days before Valentines Day and Lilliane was a mess trying to send her lovelings around the world and make things smooth for her Holliday. It was much harder then most Hollidays since love was a hard thing to make work when it came to adults, the fickle things that they were. Luckily, children were easier to deal with then adults as their love was more family based then lust or coupling was. On the subject of children, one of Lilliane's lovelings came fluttering to her and chattering about a loveless child. Startled Lilliane got more information from her loveling and found they had been trying to make this child believe for weeks and were not successful, she couldn't let this go unattended so, she took off to find this child with the help of her love fairy.

When she found the child she was sitting on swing at an empty playground, lightly kicking her feet. She couldn't have been older then eight or nine year of age so, why? Why didn't she believe in love? "Hey! It's the freak that believes in fairies and ghosts!" A boy shouted from the other end of the park with a group of children. They pointed and laughed at her as they passed by, yelling cruel and hurtful things at her as they went. 'Little brats.' Lilliane thought as her wings flapped harshly making a large gust of wind to rattle the teasing children. The girl blinked at that and looked around not seeing Cupid just behind her, sighing the girl got up from the swing and stuffed her hands in her pockets and walked away from the park. Lilliane followed the child as she reached her home but didn't enter, instead she looked through the window and watched the girl interact with her family. She was alone, a child of that age? All alone in her home? Where were her parents?

Lilliane was surprised when her parents didn't come home until after dark when the child was already in her room asleep. They didn't even check in on her to make sure she was safe, this alone enraged the love spirit. Sending her loveling off with orders for the upcoming Holiday, she made her way into the child's room only to find her awake and crying softly over a desk with papers thrown all over it. She was drawing it looked like, but Lilliane couldn't see what they were since the girl was leaning over the desk and crying into her arms. It broke her heart to see a child so small be so sad. Using a bit of her power she summons a small box of her chocolates, visible to even non-believers, and placed it on the desk in front of her head. Making a small gust of wind with her wings Lilliane gained the child's attention. The girls tearys eyes made Lilliane sob on the inside, those lovely green eyes shouldn't be filled with such sadness.

Rubbing her eyes dry the child looked at the box on her desk in confusion. "Huh?" She was sure no one came into her room, shrugging slightly she shoved the box away to the far side of her desk and picked up her pencil once more. Lilliane was surprised, no one especially children turned down chocolate. Not one for giving up Cupid moved the box back in front of the child's line of sight. "Hello? Who's there?" The child turned in her seat but looked right through Cupid instead of seeing her so, Lilliane used her magic crystal to summon another box of Chocolates, but this one had a message. The girl slowly took the floating box and opened the lid to find the message inside. 'Croire dans mon amour.' It said making the girl tilt her head. "Huh? What does this say?" The girl stood then and moved to her bed and pull a laptop out of a bag on the floor and opened it. After a few minutes of searching she seemed to find what she was looking for. "Believe in my love? Eh, what's that supposed to mean?" The girl shut the laptop and stared at the box of chocolates before sighing and picking one up and popping it into her mouth.

Lilliane was happy she was eating her chocolate now she might be able to see her. "Eeek!" The girl took one look at her and fell out of bed with a loud thump. "Bonjour little sugardrop!" The child peeked out from beside her bed and her eyes widened. "Who... Who are you?" Lilliane wasn't surprised the child didn't know she was Cupid, a lot of children thought she was a baby or something along those lines. "I am Cupid, spirit of Valentines Day." The girl looked at her oddly before shrugging and getting up to sit on her bed. "So?" The spirit was taken aback, most children were happy to see her. "Valentines Day is stupid..."

"Why do you think that sugar?" The girl huffed and settled under her covers. "Because no one loves me, so it's stupid." The love spirit wept inside, she saw how mean the children were to her and how her parents ignored her tonight, so she did the only thing she could think of at the time. Sitting on her bed Lilliane began to pet the child's hair and hummed softly, this seemed to catch the child off guard because she was staring at Cupid like she grew another head. "What are you doing?" Lilliane only smiled and continued to pet the girls hair. "Showing you some love dear."

The child was soon lulled to sleep from Lillianes gentle petting and soft humming. Before she left she laid a note next to the child's head, a promise to come back and see her the next day written on it. And she did, as often as her job would let her. She made sure the child felt what love was, as any mother to their daughter should. Soon she found herself truly falling in love with the girl, for the first time she felt what a mother would feel when her child was sad or happy or even did something they were proud of. Liliane truly felt like Joyice's mother.

.

..

end of flashback

..

.

"I soon tought her how to speak French and how to call on my lovelings. Soon she was helping spread my love around the world like she was my real child." Lilliane smiled softly at her memory looking over at the sleeping teen she came to view as her own. Jack couldn't believe it, both of these spirits took time out of their jobs for this single child. Joyice meant so much to these two that they adopted her without her even knowing about it! He looked over at the sleeping teen, Sandy was still trying to calm her nightmare with his sand. "Sandman, give it up. You're only going to lose more sand if you keep it up." Edgar sighed and waved the small man over to the table. "We still have to tell you about the night she gained these powers.

Sandy left the girls side in defeat and took a seat at the table. North patted his back but it didn't seem to help the smaller male in the slightest. He had never had this happen before, being unable to help a child in need wasn't something he came across often. "Hey, it's okay Sandy." Jack said softly making the golden man give a half smile before turning to Edgar and making a sand gestures for him to continue. Edgar sighed and looked over at Cupid whom shared his look of concern. Obviously, they really didn't want to tell them what they were about to tell them, but Lilliane spoke anyway.

"Her powers first came to light when she was thirteen, the night of her very birthday were she tried too..." Lilliane trailed off and placed a hand over her mouth, waving it off before floating away towards Joyice's resting place by the fire and left Edgar to finish. "She tried to, 'join us' as she put it." The other Gaurdians looked at him funny making him sigh. "Do I really need to say it out loud?" He groaned making Jack worry his lip before speaking. "What do you mean she tried to, 'join us'?" Edgar sighed and rubbed a hand on his forehead. "She tried to... To kill herself.."

.

..

...

Eden: Okay just to clear, not everyone has fairies! Just Tooth, Edgar and Lilliane. I thought it would be neat if Halloween had little trouble making fairies to make pranks and good times. Haha, but again, I do not speak French though I kinda wish I did so all of it is very rough. If you speak French and are mad I am sorry. Enjoy!

Translations:

Oui: Yes.

Sweet et tristes, comme le chocolat fondu: Sweet and sad, like melted chocolate.

Croire dans mon amour: Believe in my love.

Bonjour: Hello


	4. Sorting out the Confusion

Warnings: There is mention of self harm and suicid attempts and a bit of blood too so if you don't think you can handle that just message me or something and I'll give you the gist of what happened. It was Warnings: There is mention of self harm and suicide attempts and a bit of blood too so if you don't think you can handle that just message me or something and I'll give you the gist of what happened. It was sadly easy to write this since I've been through something like this before, so this chapter hits a sore spot slightly for me. So be nice~

.

..

..

Silence.

The quiet was just as loud as it would have been if they would have started screaming. In a way, Edgar would have preffered that. He had a long time to get over what happened and prevent such a thing from ever happening again. He remembered the pain in Joyice's voice and the tears falling like rivers from those large green orbs. The pain in his own chest from the mere memory of that night still had his heart twisting, her cries to be loved and her begging them to take her away and live together as a family still as fresh as the time it had happened. Edgar chanced a glance around the table, seeing their shocked faces would have been funny if it weren't for the secret he just told them. Then there was Jack's face, poor thing looked like a deer in the head lights, fear and horror merring such a pretty face was not attractive.

Oh Jack.

Since the boy was sitting across from him, Edgar reached out and patted his limp hand to break him from whatever thoughts that were running through his pretty little head, this didn't go unnoticed by Bunny whom had the hardest time of his life trying to surpress the growl bubbling up in his throat. "I know it's a shock to hear Snowball, but these things happen." The winter boy shook his head and carefully pulled his hand away to rest on his staff. "What do you mean, 'these things happen'? I've never heard of something like that!" Jacks voice was full of child like confusion. It was endearing, if not a little funny and sad at the same time, given that he was a 300 plus year old spirit.

"Jack." The boys name rolling off of Edgars tongue made Bunny grind his teeth. Ever since he met this spirit all he's wanted to do was snatch Jack up and take off with him, and that made no sense to the Pooka! Jack pressed all his buttons and pushed him to a point that he would grind his claws into the nearest tree just so he wouldn't dig them into the Winter Spirit's perfect skin. Wait... Perfect?! Where had that come from?! That was another thing about Jack that Bunny couldn't figure out, why, in all his centuries of being a guardian, did Jack Frost of all spirits rise instincts in him that he thought had been long since buried? But, ever since they put that shadow sneaking rat bag Pitch Black out of commission, Jack had been trying anything and everything he could think of to get on Bunny's good side. From helping out with his Warren to repair the damage done to it, or to helping with Easter by painting eggs till he couldn't move his wrist anymore and/or leading the eggs to each continent till he couldn't even ride the wind anymore and just flopped wherever he seemed to land at the time.

Such things were very sweet and filled Bunny with pride to know that Jack wanted him to, at the very least, accept him in whatever way he could get. To get a smile out of him or some sort of praise for his hard work, even a reprimand for being too careless or loud. Bunny almost purred at the thought of Jack wanting his attention. Ever since Jack became a Guardian Bunny has done his best to endure his childish pranking and such and, after a time, had come to find him endearing in his own way and started to enjoy their little moments of calm bits of happiness that Bunny hasn't felt in a long time... Geez, such things really made Bunny feel his age sometimes. Wait, Jacks talking again. Damn, what was he saying?

"I don't get it! There had to have been a better way then for her to want to die like that!" Poor Jack was still trying to wrap his head around the girl wanting to die, it seemed to strike a bit of fear in the poor boys heart. "Jack, there are some kids out there that would rather die alone then be where they are now." Edgar sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. "You just don't understand when you yourself are so strong willed. It's harder for a child to be alone, with the promise of a loving family he or she can never have, it takes its toll on their fragile minds." He looked over at the quivering girl on the couch as Cupid tried her best to sooth her nightmare. He refused to think of what might have happened that night, of what they would have lost if it had happened. "Haven't you ever felt so lonely that you just wished for it to end? Felt so lonely that the thought of someone actually caring for you was nothing more then a silly dream? A lie, even?" All eyes at the table trained in on Jack, since the question was targeted at him, as he carefully moved his ever present staff to the crook of his left arm so he could shove his hands into his hoodie pockets.

"Yeah, I have.. So? I never thought of killing myself!" Bunny's shoulders tensed, he couldn't help but think that most of it was because of him. He never did learn what really happened back in '68 fully, every time it was brought up Jack would shy away from the subject or change it completely, for either fear of making Bunny mad or just not wanting to talk about it, Bunny didn't know. The thought of Jack so low as to think of ending his own life, however hard for a spirit it would be, made his chest twist in a very familiar way that he hoped to never feel again. There's no way Jack didn't feel that way from time to time, even now with his new string of believers and the big four at his side, it would be hard to wash away all that loneliness. Bunny wanted to whine at the thought, not only for how bad he made Jack feel for most of those years, but also because there was a chance that he wasn't enough to make that hole of loneliness fade. There go his instincts again!

"Like I said Snowy, you're far more strong willed then a lot of kids. Joyice was a very, very lonely and neglected kid. Even now, her sister is held on far higher standards then she is and she still loves that little kid to bits." A bit of fondness touched Edgar's words as he thought of Joyice and her sister. The two were polar opposites, the little girl was all color and smiles while her older sister was dark shades and stern faces. it was perfect in a twisted sort of way. The beloved child and the forgotten sister, quite the romantic title eh?

"Her nightmare is not getting any better. Je suis inquiète..." Cupid had floated up to the table and addressed Edgar with worry clearly etched on her delicate face. Edgar looked over at the girl again and saw her tossing and turning with quiet whimpering leaving her lips at every twist. "Should we wake her?" The angel asked worriedly as she eyed the poor girl as well, Edgar nodded to her. "Yeah, it looks like a doozy." With that the two spirits both left the table to the now weeping girl on the couch. She was crying, boarding on screaming, for whatever it was to stop, to leave her alone. She whimpered when Edgar's hand touched her forehead and eased into her hair gently. "Oi, time to wake up Shadow Princess.. C'mon, wakey wakey." Edgar urged her gently as he carded his hands through her hair with one hand and used the other to lightly shake her shoulder.

Jacks head tilted to the side. Who knew a spirit that was meant to spread fear could be so gentle? Maybe he would ask the Halloween Spirit how he came to be a spirit, after all, he knew next to nothing about the man when he bolted from his company those few decades ago. He was also curious as to what such a touch would feel like, since he hadn't had any contact with another person that wasn't violent or misunderstood. He wondered if it was comforting to feel fingers through your hair like that, it must if Edgar was doing it to wake the teen up, right? He half wondered if he could ask one of the other guardians to do something like that to him? No. He wouldn't ask for that. He never asked for anything other then to been seen and he got his wish, he wasn't about to go asking for more then he thought he deserved.

As Jack sorted out his thoughts to get them under control Bunny watched him with a calculating stare. At first his confusing jealousy had risen its ugly head when Jack showed more interest in the Hollows eve spirit, but now that he was watching him and following his line of sight with a centuries old trained eye, Bunny saw that Jack was puzzled by the way edgar caressed the girls hair to calmly pull her from the nightmare. Then a thought hit Bunny like a brick to the face, Jack hasn't had any contact for over 300 years! He didn't understand what Edgar was doing and was trying to figure it out. The spring spirit wanted to jab himself in the ribs for being jealous from Jack's simple curiosity, however painful it was to realize, and just watched the emotions play across face.

Jack was startled into bumping right into Bunny as he sat beside him when Joyice shouted and started flailing about wildly as if something was out to get her. In a way, there was. Edgar didn't seem fazed by it though, he merely took hold of her and held on until she ceased her flailing and relaxed into him and started muttering in French. Cupid was at her side in seconds, speaking softly back at her in French as she too stroked her fingers through her hair and lightly kissed the side of her head. Jacks head tilted once again, after the shock wore off of course, and watched the two spirits intensely. Could such a touch really be that comforting? Jack didn't have time to think on it again as Joyice started yelling again. "Jack! Where's Jack?! Where is he?!" She sounded so panicked that Jack had to look around the room for a minute to make sure nothing was going to pop out at him. After that he slowly moved his way around the table and stood in front of it. "I'm right here Joy." He said a bit shaky from the sudden outburst.

Once the girls eye trained on him it was like she forgot all about her pain and jumped from the loving embrace of her spirit family and over to the frosty teen. She was across the floor in no time and once she reached Jack her arms shot out and hugged him tightly around his waist as she buried her face in his chest, crying out his name again. "Jack! Such a horrible dream... It felt so real!" She let out a choked sob before forcing her head deeper into the teen spirits chest. Jack looked over at Edgar for a hint of what to do, he's never had to comfort someone before or had ever been comforted, he was at a loss for what to do. Edgar rolled his eyes and mimed a hug with his arms and a patting motion with his hands. Slowly, if not awkwardly, Jack wound his arms around Joyice gently and patted her back softly like Edgar had showed him. Looking back up from the girls head and over to Edgar, seeing him nod and making an up and down motion with one hand and pulled his arms in closer to tell him to hug tighter. Jack did just that and was surprised that something so simple could calm the babbling teen so easily, he kept this up for a good few minutes until Joyice felt like she could pull away enough to look at him again.

Joyice's eyes were watery and glassy from her sobbing and her bottom lip trembled slightly. "Jack, I'm scared." She looked it too, Jacks center came out then and he reacted on instinct alone, Jack pulled the girl into a tight hug before pulling her away and kept her at arm's length before speaking. "I know, but it's alright, we're gonna figure this out together, okay? I'm here and so it's all good!" Jack gave his normal crooked smirk before pulling the girl back in for another tight hug. Joyice, along with the rest of the people in the room, were taken aback by Jack's actions. Joyice recovered quickly and returned the hug gladly... Until the pain hit her again. Groaning Joyice crumbled to the ground onto her side in a heap and nearly took Jack down with her. "Ooooooow..." The teen girl whined pitifully as she curled into her body to relieve the pain that coursed through it.

Jack panicked for a split second, thinking he was the cause of her pain, but soon remembered she was a bit worse for wares as it was when she had come into the globe room. Kneeling down to the whining girl he noticed a splotch of red at her hip when her sweater rode up a bit. Fear laced his features at the crimson color before twisting towards the other Guardians. "Guys she's bleeding!" His voice was high pitched and scared, he himself has never bled before so seeing such a thing made that creeping feeling of dread spread through his chest.

Edgar was at her side in just a blink and was lifting Joyice's sweater for a better look. Jack cringed at the sight of her stomach, it was sunken in slightly from lack of food and just as pale as he was, the little bit he could actually see. Joyice's skin on her side was covered in red. Jack was sure she wasn't supposed to lose that much blood. "What happened?" Jack could hear Tooth gasp after asking that question, the others had formed behind him to get a look and try to help. "I think she pulled out her stitches." Edgar sighed and turned his head to Lilliane. "C'mon Angel, I need your help here." Shaken out of her shock the angel woman was at Edgars side in no time, pulling off her long white gloves and tossing them to the side for later she placed her hands on the girls side. It took Jack a moment to realise Cupid was adding pressure to the wound, he'd see that in movies and read it books but had never tried it himself.

"We should move her to infirmary." North stated behind Jack and turned to a yeti just off to the side trying to keep an elf from eating the cookies he'd just brought in. "No, moving her right now is not a good idea. It'll just make it worse." Edgar hissed out as he rummaged through his hoodie pockets for something, letting out a sound of triumph as he pulled out a small glass sphere, much like Norths snowglobes, he tossed it, and lo and behold, a portal opened up and he went through it with a quick, "I'll be right back!"

Five long minutes passed before Edgar came back with an arm full of items and a handful of shadow fairies fluttering in behind him. He gave no clue as to what he was about to do and just set to doing it, leaving the others to watch on as he and Lilliane set to work on the girl. They pulled her sweater up to mid ribcage so Lilliane could clean all the blood on the girls stomach and sides, with items that Edgar and the fairies brought of course. Edgar had brought a first aid kit of sorts, it was a large brown wooden box that looked like it had been polished and smooth to the touch. It also seemed bottomless as Edgar's hand disappeared into it to pull out a bottle of green liquid and, once the girls stomach was clean, he poured the green fluid over a very nasty looking gash he had assumed to be her once stitched up wound.

"Where did she even get a wound like that?" Again, Tooth voiced what everyone wanted to ask but was too stunned to say anything. "It is why we told her not to train with her powers for awhile." Lilliane said as she took a pair of scissors from a fluttering shadow fairy and snipped at the loose thread that still hung to the gash and pulled it from the girls side. Jack cringed and pulled himself away from their work and took up place beside Bunny. He'd never seen something like this up close, he wasn't sure he liked what they were doing to her and was even more upset that she was awake and groaning at every touch and pull they did. But then, Cupids words hit him, she had hurt herself while using her own sand, was that even possible? Could your own power do that to you? Was it because she was human and not a spirit like them? Too many questions and not enough answers filled the teen sprites mind and it made him dizzy, along with the scent of blood and the sound of whimpering.

Bunny was faring no better then Jack, the smell and sound alone brought up bad memories of forgotten times and he really didn't want to be there at them moment. Looking over at Jack, whom had a hand over his mouth and his eyes closed tightly, he thought of maybe taking a break from all that was around them. "Ah think Jack an' Ah need some air." The Aussie stated and placed a paw on Jacks shoulder and, very gently, pushed the frost boy towards the door to leave. When they reached it Bunny opened the door and waited for Jack to walk out first, the boy stopped at looked at him funny but soon a small grin graced his face. "Thanks Cottontail." He said softly and went through the open door and waited for Bunny on the other side. He didn't have to wait long as Bunny went through the door and gave his own grin once it was closed. "No problem, Snowflake."

...

...

..

Note: So I was trying to delve into Bunny and Jacks relationship a bit more in this chapter. I left it quite non existent in the other chapters and focused more on Joyice, Edgar and Lilliane. So with this one I wanted more Bunny and Jack~ I hope it was served up to your liking! There will be more to come! Promise!

Translations:

Je suis inquiète... : I am worried...


	5. That Once Winter

Jack didn't know what to say to Bunny as they walked through the North Pole. He didn't even notice they had made it to the kitchens until Bunny asked him a question he didn't hear at first. "Uh? Sorry, what did you say?" He thought Bunny would be irritated at having to repeat himself but, he proved Jack wrong for once. "Ah said, did ya want a snack or somethin' ta drink?" Jack wasn't sure his stomach was in any kind of condition to take in food at the moment. "No, thanks though." Jack sighed and plopped himself on a chair near a small round table. He just couldn't get the sight of Joyice writhing in pain on the floor, covered in her own blood no less, out of his head. He almost jumped out of his skin when a steaming mug was placed in front of him by a furry pawed hand.

"Drink. It'll ease yer stomach, mate." Looking up at Bunny the frost boy gave him a wary look, the rabbit only grinned and chuckled softly. "Don' worry, mate. Ah didn' do anythin' to it." Jack looked from him to the mug sitting in front of him and debated weather to drink it or not. Giving a shrug Jack took the cup in his hands after setting his staff off to the side, sipping it slowly. Bunny was glad to see Jack take a drink, he was sure the poor boy needed it just as much as he did. He had given him some hot chocolate with a bit of mint mixed into it, to calm his belly. He was sure Jacks stomach was doing flip flops at the moment and mint is a good way to calm ones nerves. "What did you put in this Bunny?" Said rabbit looked up from his mint tea to the frost sprite and grinned again. "Just some mint, mate. It helps calm nerves and helps unsettled stomachs." Jack seemed to accept this and took another drink.

Silence fell over them for a good moment. Bunny had thought of bringing up Easter and how he had wanted Jack to help out again, if only to ease the tension in the poor boys shoulders. "You think she'll be okay? There was a lot of blood..." The boy took a shaky sip of his coco as Bunny sighed. He had hoped to keep his mind off of this subject for at least a little while, but it seemed the sprite was just too shaken. "Yes. She'll be a'right." Bunny said softly as he watched Jack over the rim of his cup. The boy sighed and stroked his thumb over his mugs lip before taking another sip. "How can you be sure? I've never seen... _That_ before.." Bunny didn't realize that Jack was this shaken by something the Pooka found common, however Bunny had seen more then his fair share of blood and gore in his time. "Trust me mate, humans are far more durable then ya think." Jack gave him a confused look before his brows knitted closer together. "That doesn't mean Joyice is the same as others, I mean, look what she can do! She's not normal as is, what she can and can't endure is anyone's guess!" Jacks voice rised a bit at the end, his fear getting the better of him. "Jack.." The boys eyes widened when he realized that he was glaring at Bunny and had stood up from his chair, slowly plopping back down Jack brought his hands to up to rub at his face. "Sorry..."

"Listen mate, it's true tha' we don' know her, we may neva really know her, but Cupid an' Hallow know her. They've known her fer years, if anythin' was truly wrong, they would know." Jack looked up at Bunny before giving him a slight nod. "It's just..." Jack's words trailed off, his eyes became distant before he shook his head and looked away from the Rabbit. For once, Bunny didn't see the annoying sprite that liked to prank and snark at him. For once, he saw a boy, weathered and tired. "What is it Frostbite?" The boy looked at him for a moment, seeming to debate weather telling him anything was a good idea or not. "I can't help but feel that... This is.. Mostly my fault.." To say Bunny was surprised would be an understatement, how could the sprite think that this was his fault? He had nothing to do with the way the girl felt, right? "Jack, ya know that's not true right?" The boy shook his head quickly.

"It's because I didn't keep my promise to visit her.. I visited other children and mostly Jamie... I never once.." Jack choked of his words a bit before taking a shaky sip of his coco. "I never once thought about seeing her after she moved. I knew where she was too but, that area hardly ever got snow so when I did fly over I had forgotten about her.." Jack made himself sick. How could he forget one of his believers? Even after he had forgotten about her, the girl never forgot him, how could she still believe in him after what he had done? "Jack, ya can't keep everyone happy. As a Guardian you have duties ta keep," Bunny sighed and placed his cup down on the table and sat down across from Jack. "ya can't drop everythin' for a single child." This only seemed to make the boy mad, he got up from the table like Bunny had burned him and took a few steps back. "We did for Jamie! I mean, we needed him to believe in us," He paused and gave the Pooka a pointed look. "in you. We droped everything to keep him safe. How could we, no, how could _I_ over look a child I had made a promise too!" The boy shook his head and turned slightly away from Bunny.

"You don't understand. None of you do. A broken promise to a child is like... Stabbing them in the back. It makes them feel bad, even worse when it's someone you trust." Then Jack's mind flashed back to the fight with Pitch and how Easter was ruined because the Shadow King had tricked him, lured him away with his memories he so desperately wanted. He remembered the rage Bunny had shown and how hard he flinched when Bunny seemed ready to knock his teeth out. "Then again, maybe you do." Jack mumbled to himself, it was merely a whisper but the Pooka's ears picked it up. Picking up on the sprites train of thought Bunny was quick to cut off those thoughts. "Aye, what happened that Easter wasn't yer fault, not entirely anyway." Jack didn't seem to be listening, the boy shook his head and turned fully away from Bunny.

This was not going how Bunny had hoped it would. Instead of gaining some time with the younger spirit, and maybe getting him to trust him a bit more, he seemed to be pushing the young boy away even more. "Frostbite, mate, I forgave ya for tha' Easter. But, I need ta be forgivin too." At this the winter spirit looked at him with a raised brow. "I acted a right arse when I heard ya were with Pitch. I thought ya had betrayed us, betrayed me." Bunny's ears laid flat behind his head telling the younger of the two that this upset him. "Pitch an' Ah go way back, mate. He's one of the reasons Ah'm a Guardian," Bunny looked away, "maybe Ah'll tell ya about it _someday_ , but that's why Ah reacted the way Ah did. I thought ya left us for him."

Jack shook his head quickly. "I would never have joined him." Jack said simply as he took his cup from the table. "He scared me, I hated the way he hurt children so easily. Even without my memories I knew I never wanted to be seen that way." Jack sipped his coco again, "Didn't stop him from trying, mind you." finishing it off and taking it to the sink to be washed he didn't notice Bunny stiffen at the statement and stand from the chair at the table. "He what?" Bunny tried with all his might to keep the shocked anger from filling his voice as he waited for Jack to answer him.

Jack just shrugged a shoulder with his back to Bunny as he washed the mug. "He came to me after you all shunned me, said we could be partners and make the world believe in us through his fear. We fought, then he tried to use Baby Tooth against me to get my staff. I gave it to him in exchange for Baby Tooth." Bunny could see where that was going, Pitch would never have given the fairy back to Jack. "When I reached out for her he told me that if I wanted to be alone then I should be alone. Baby Tooth didn't like that so she used her beak and stuck his hand and he throw her, when he did he broke my staff in half and tossed me down a fissure in the ice, along with Baby Tooth and my broken staff." He finished washing the cup and placed it to the side to dry and made his way back to the table to pluck his staff off the wall and held it between the crook of his elbow, placing his hands in his hoodie pockets to give Bunny a look between boredom and irritation.

Bunny was beside himself. If Pitch had succeeded is getting Jack on his side then the whole fight would have turned out way differently then what it had. He's never heard this story before, never heard Tooth mention it or heard the fairies tweet about it. "But, if he broke yer staff then how did ya get ta Jamie?" The pooka eyed the staff, looking for any sign that it was damaged. There were none, except for a tiny little sliver of a crack that someone would miss if they weren't looking for it. "I fixed it." Came Jacks vague answer. He didn't explain anymore then that until Bunny had to voice it, making him sigh. "After Baby Tooth encouraged me to look into my memories I had found a power I never knew I had, that power fixed my staff." Again, vague answer but Bunny left it alone. For now anyway.

"How come Ah neva heard this story before?" Jack gave him a look that seemed to scream, 'Are you serious?' but the Pooka just gave him a pointed look of his own. "You really don't listen to me huh? among other things," Bunny's eyes narrowed at the winter spirit. What was _that_ supposed to mean? Sure early on Bunny kept the kid at a distance but he always had his ears out for anything that seemed harmful to the teen. "I told you all this when we got together to plan on getting the believers stable again, remember?" No, he didn't. He was too weak at the time to remember much of anything, Jack sighed again. "Forget it. It's in the past now, it doesn't matter anymore." Jack mumbled a little dejectedly making Bunny flinch and sit back down.

Silence took hold of the two once more. Jack stood by the window and Bunny sat at the table staring into his empty cup as he thought. Jack was upset, by more then just the information they got about Joyice. He was upset that Bunny didn't listen, making it seem like he didn't care, but he did care. He cared more then he should in fact. Bunny wanted to ask more questions, not just about what happened with Pitch, but with Jack himself. Bunny wanted to know more then he did now.

"Aye, Jack." The boy hummed to show him that he was listening but kept his eyes one the window. "Remember when Ah said Ah needed ta talk to ya?" The boy nodded still looking out the window. "Well, Ah needed some more help with the Warren. Since ya do a decent job of helpin' now and again, I was wonderin' if ya'd help out some more?" Jack looked at Bunny then, surprise written all over his face. It never failed, whenever Bunny asked him to help out or gave him praise for something the boy always had a look of shocked wonder on his face. He never looked like that with the others, he noted, and only smiled and thanked them. "S-sure, I don't have anything to do now that winter is over." Jack rubbed his neck and looked back out of the window.

Then Bunny had the infamous question nagging at the back of his mind. The one question he never got an answer too, maybe he never will, but he wanted to try again. Maybe then he could get over it and him and Jack would have a more stable relationship because of it. But he also didn't want to chase the younger away, it was a touchy topic and Bunny had to be as careful as possible to make sure he didn't make it worse. "Aye, Frostbite." He got another hum in return and took a deep breath.

"The blizzard of '68, why did ya do it? What happened?" Jack's head snapped to Bunny so fast he thought the poor boys neck would snap. Jack stared at him for a long moment before turning away again. "Doesn't matter, it's in the past." Bunny wasn't going to take that answer, he knew, but he still didn't want to talk about it. "You wouldn't believe me anyway." He sighed.

"Try me."

.

..

.

 _The early twilight casting beautiful hues of gold, pink and dark blues. The stars were fading with the rise of the sun as it slowly moved to shine down on the freshly fallen snow Jack Frost had made. He was quite proud of himself this time around, he made sure it wasn't too thick since this day was Easter. He wanted just enough snow so the kids could enjoy both Easter and a snowday, which was off to a perfect start. He was hoping to at least not make the Easter Bunny mad at him like last year when he pelted the rabbit with snowballs and ended up flying all over the place to avoid being beaten up by said rabbit._

 _Jack had watched the children all morning, loving that they were having so much fun in his snow and being able to find the eggs hidden all over the park they played in, even helping the little ones find eggs by pushing them into the open and steering them in the right directions. However; Jack's fun soon came to an end when he spotted an Iceling wondering too close to the park. Icelings are very dangerous, simple minded creatures as they are, they will attack anything that moves weather it's a child, adult or spirit; they don't care. As long as blood is spilled they are content._

 _Jack panicked when he saw more then one and noticed them sneaking too close to the children's playground. Jack flew over the park and called out to the Icelings, gaining their attention he fired ice blasts at them to make them angry and chase him away from the playground. Jack hadn't thought the whole plan through however, since he's hardly ever had to fight before, so he mostly just bobed and weaved through the town and blasted at the monsters to keep them focused on him. It wasn't long before he made it to a bundle of trees and hid in the tree tops to catch his breath, his hiding spot didn't last long as one of the creatures burst through the branches and aimed to tear his face apart._

 _Jack was able to call on the wind to take him into the air, high enough that the Icelings couldn't reach him. Sadly, they still used icy blasts to try and knock him down. One hard ice sickle clipped his leg and another tore into his shoulder, wedging itself in the fleshy part of it, causing minimal damage but a lot of pain. Crying out only seemed to rile them up as Jack took off to the deeper part of the woods, he was beyond losing them now as blue blood tainted his old white shirt. He would have to find a new one now, but that was the least of his problems right now. A shirt he could replace, a limb however, not so much._

 _The poor winter boy was lost now, he didn't know where a good place to hide would be, likely no where since his side was covered in blood and they had noses like blood hounds. In his panic Jack didn't notice the weather getting colder or the snow picking up around him, his mind was too far gone to think of anything else but getting these monsters away from the kids and the town in general. His panic flared when one of the creatures jumped just high enough to snag his ankle in its claws and drag him down. Jack yelled, swinging his staff and smashing the Iceling in the head with a powerful blast making it quickly let go with a shriek. Jack quickly took to the sky again and continued to lead them away. Jack had to think of something, anything, to get these beasts off his tail._

 _The wind picked up around him and it got colder and colder the longer this little chase went on, he was getting weaker from blood loss and he knew he wouldn't be able to keep this up much longer. When he spotted an open field he had an idea, it wasn't a good one, but something is better then nothing at all. Keeping the creatures attention he flew down low and gathered them into the clearing, calling on the wind Jack summoned a storm centered in the clearing to force the beasts to draw in closer to each other. Jack twisted the wind and pulled the Icelings from the ground with the sheer force of it, he lifted them in the air, higher and higher until they were at lethal height and, with the same powerful wind, he made the wind slam them towards the ground._

 _The Icelings didn't stand a chance of surviving a fall from such a height, being made of ice tends to make one... Fragile. Jack cringed at the sound they made as they hit the ground, bits of the monsters flying everywhere along with blue blood, much like his own. Speaking of which, Jack had to find a good place to dress his wounds but, he didn't have a place of his own and he didn't know where he was anymore. Sighing Jack thought it would be better to find a safer place then out in the open like he was. He vaguely remembered passing a small stream in his chase, there was sure to be shelter there somewhere._

 _Jack made his way to the stream with great effort, the pain in his shoulder and leg no longer dulled by adrenaline making him feel every tug and pull of muscle as the ice stayed lodged in his shoulder. Jack used the water to ease the ice spike from his shoulder, a hard task since he had to press down on his powers so the water wouldn't just freeze. By the time he got the spike out he was panting and weak, the blood loss was getting to him. With his shoulder free he quickly cleaned it up and frosted it over so he could dress it later when he got back to a town, but first he needed rest._

 _When he thought he had found a good enough place to hide and sleep, the Easter Bunny seemed to come out of no where. He was mad, beyond mad, livid even. The rabbit was screaming at him that he ruined Easter, that he created a blizzard that forced everyone to take cover within the area. Jack didn't know he started a blizzard, he was too busy running for he life for crying out loud! He tried to tell the Easter Bunny what happened but he wanted to hear none of it. After a long bout of yelling and accusing The rabbit finally left and Jack curled up into himself in the highest tree he could find._

 _Stupid Easter Bunny..._

.

..

.

Bunnymund felt like he was going to puke. He had listened closely as Jack retold his memory of what happened in '68. Bunny could see a lot of ways the blizzard could have happened, a prank gone wrong, a slip in his power, hell even doing it on purpose! But nothing he was told was even close to what he thought was right and it made him sick. Jack had protected children from hostile ice monsters by using himself as bait, the pooka was beside himself now. The playful spirit he thought he knew was far different then what he thought he was. Mischievous and fun loving, sure, but there was more to it then that now. He knew Jack was selfless but Bunny didn't think Jack would have put himself in danger like that, Bunny wanted to jab his ribs hard for that, he should know better by now that Jack would do anything and everything for the children. That's why he is taking Joyice's situation so hard, he feels as if he is the main source of her pain.

"You saved children.." Bunny whispered softly, still wrapping his head around how much wrong he had done to Jack over those years. The boy scoffed as he stared at the rabbit, the look in his eyes and on his face were telling enough about what he was feeling. Jack thought he didn't believe him. "What, need prof? I still have the scars, one on my leg and on my shoulder. Can't show the leg one though since it's on my thigh but I'll be happy to show the shoulder one." Jack said idly already slipping his right arm from it's sleeve. "No!" The sharp bark of Bunny's voice made Jack jump, his arm and side already exposed to the light but his shoulder was still covered and Bunny noticed that Jack kept his arm behind his back tightly. Bunny didn't mean for his voice to sound the way it did but he wasn't so sure he would be able to take seeing _that_ scar just yet, the one on his side was little better but more bearable to see. "I... I believe you Jack." Was all he could choke out.

Jack stared at him for a long moment before shruging and pulling the sleeve back down and letting his arm slide back into it. "Whatever, North and Sandy already know about them so I'm not sure why you're so against seeing them." He said idly making Bunny's fur bristle. "Whadda mean, 'they already know'?" He wasn't so sure he wanted to know why but he had already asked the question. "Geez Bunny, crawl out of that hole of yours!" Jack sighed heavily and sat back down on the chair once more. "My job isn't all snowballs and fun times like I say it is. It's hard work controlling winter, harder then you think, not killing people with frostbite or keeping the black ice off the roads is hard enough." Jack picked at the table cloth as he rested his head in the hand that was propped up on said table.

"Sometimes when I travel Icelings and other creatures try and corner me, winter monsters are a lot more cruel then others, so sometimes I come back with bumps and bruises and North has to patch me up. That's how they know and-" Bunny had enough as he stood from the table and moved to the kitchens island counter to brace himself. All this time, _all this time_ Jack had been injured and he had done nothing, _nothing_ to help! Sandy did more then he had and worst of all, he never noticed. Not once, he never even asked how Jack was doing, just assuming he was fine and all was well.

"Bunny? What's gotten into you?" Jack was confused, rightfully so, Bunny had been acting off since they came to the North Pole. He was keeping Jack close, never leaving his side and now he was acting weird and asking odd questions. Bunny never asked these things before, why was he now? "Ah'm sorry Jack." Bunny didn't need to turn around to know the sprite had a confused look on his face, he could feel it. "I let ya down, disregarded how ya felt and brushed ya aside like nothin'." Bunny shook his head and turned to Jack, leveling a hard stare at him before he continued. "It won't happen again, the blizzard of '68 or otherwise, I won't bat away what you have to say anymore." Jack's eyes went wide at Bunny's conviction and turned away from his stare as his face bloomed with a frosty blush.

"Wha-what are you talking about? Where did that even come from?" Jack mumbled rubbing the back of his neck. Despite himself, Bunny felt a small smile reach his lips, it wasn't everyday he got to see the fun loving spirit be so flustered. Then a thought hit him and figured it would be a good way to seal what he just said and prove to Jack that he meant it. So Bunny moved over to Jack and reached out a paw, being very gentle he carded his paw through the snow white locks, ignoring the jump of surprise and the wide eyed expression of the frosty teen.

Bunny didn't look at Jack's face, instead he kept his eyes on his paw as he petted Jack's head and hair. Jack just stared at Bunny in shock, the rabbit was petting him, _actually petting him_ , and it felt good! Against his will, Jack felt his eyes close slowly and his head tilt into the touch. So this is what it felt like. It wasn't a hand that shifted through his hair like he imagined but it still felt good. Bunny's claws gently scraped his scalp and it soothed any tension left in his body. Bunny was pleased, Jack had responded better then he thought he would, even leaning into him and relaxing against him. Bunny couldn't help the purr that rolled out of his chest, he was just too pleased by Jack's reaction.

Jack's eyebrows rose at the sound of purring but he made no move to look at Bunny, he was more relaxed then he could ever remembering being. Bunny's hand through his hair and the soft rumbling of his purring as Jack rested his head against him was just to relaxing all at once. Jack lost himself in the petting, but he couldn't find it in him to care, this felt nice and was more then happy to let it continue for as long as he could.

' _I could get used to this.._ '


End file.
